


Plan: Apprentices

by Dragonlover2006



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:47:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 47,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24628057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonlover2006/pseuds/Dragonlover2006
Summary: The Dragon Riders decide that they should train more people to fight the Dragon Hunters. When Shelby Reenberg is chosen, she is less than pleased. She decides that she can get through the ordeal by choosing a slow dragon, like a Gronkle. But the Gods must really not be on Shelby's side because when the mission to choose their dragons goes terribly wrong, she accidently bonds with the Nightfury who saves her. With her new dragon, Starlight, by her side, she is thrown into the action. Well, flown into the action.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 19





	1. The plan begins

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own anything except my OCs. I definitely did not create How To Train Your Dragon, I'm just messing around with it for my own entertainment.

Soon after the discovery of the Dragon Hunters, the Dragon Riders concluded that they would need re-enforcements.

They toyed with the idea of having the A-team on Dragon’s Edge, since Berk hadn’t been involved in the conflict for a while, but they realised that it would leave their home island too undefended and open to attack. It was still nearly a day’s flight away, and was an obvious target for the Dragon Hunters.

No, they would need an entirely new set of Dragon Riders ready to train specifically for this war.

And that was how Plan Apprentices was born. At first, it was just a hypothetical. But soon, with the latest plots from their enemy, it became a solid plan.

And Fishlegs found himself to be the one to take the news to Berk.

Armed with only a dragon and a scroll of instructions which he had begged Hiccup to write down in case he forgot, the Dragon Rider arrived at Berk in the early evening. He quickly landed, thinking furiously about how much better it would have been if Astrid had been sent, and scurried as fast as his legs could carry him over to the Great Hall.

“S-Stoick,” he called over to the chief, who was talking to a couple of villagers about something to do with sheep.

Stoick turned in bemused surprise, “Fishlegs! Is everything alright?”

Fishlegs looked around at the other Vikings present. It would not do to get people excited before he actually broke the news to them, “I-I need to speak with the council,” he said.

It did not take long before Berk’s small decision-making team was gathered in the Great Hall.

Stoick, who had looked curious throughout the endeavour, but had not pressed Fishlegs for answers, said, “why did you call us here, Fishlegs?”

Fishelgs took a deep breath, “We were attacked by the Dragon Hunters. We defeated them and escaped, but Hiccup’s worried that they may strike again. We need back-up dragon riders if we’re going to stand a chance.”

“You mean you’re going to take the Auxiliary team?” presumed Stoick, raising an eyebrow.

Before Fishlegs could reply, Gobber put in, “that’s ridiculous! You’ll be leaving Berk almost completely undefended! And just after we’ve made a new enemy!”

“We’ve defended this island without dragons before,” Stoick pointed out, stroking his beard thoughtfully, “we can surely do it again.”

“We’re not going to take the Auxiliary team,” Fishlegs interrupted.

“Oh?” was Stoicks only reply.

Gobber laughed, “really? How many other teams of trained Dragon Riders are there in the Archipelago?”

“None,” Fishegs replied, “we’re going to train a new one.”

This was met with silence.

After a lot of dubious looking around, Spitelout decided to add his opinion into the mix, “you can’t just train more Dragon Riders every time you have a problem, boyo,” he pointed out, “there’s only a certain amount of Vikings brave enough to do it. Sooner or later we’re going to run out.”

“I hate to admit it, but Spitelout’s right. How many would we be talking?” Gobber asked.

Fishlegs fiddled with his hands nervously, “Hiccup said about 5-10 initially. He said that if that goes well, we could always visit our allies and see if they have any Vikings willing to go through training.”

“It sounds like you’ve thought this out,” Stoick admitted.

“Say you did get some people willing to take it on,” Gobber began, “what would you do then? Train them here in relative safety but leave your base a Rider down, or take them over to the Edge?”

“We were going train them for a few weeks here, enough to get them flying, then take them to Dragons Edge to get more experience. Hiccup doesn’t want untrained Riders at risk, of course,” Fishlegs answered.

“Ok,” Stoick said. He turned to the other members of the council, “all in favour of more Dragon Riders being trained and sent to the Edge, raise your hands.”

The vote was decisive. Excluding Spitelout, no council member had any objections to a few more Vikings being trained to ride dragons. Snotlout’s father huffed and rolled his eyes when this was expressed, “well, what do we have to lose?”

No-one responded, but Fishlegs could almost hear everyone thinking at once, ‘well, quite a lot, actually’.

…

_Crrrreeaak_

“Shelby, time to get up!”

Shelby Reenberg groaned and turned over. Her mother slid the door further open, causing the creaking noise to continue. She felt a weight on the end of her bed.

_Grrrrrrr._

Shelby sighed, “mornin’, Rascal,” she said, addressing the small Terrible Terror who was the culprit of both the growl and the unwanted weight.

“How come only the family pet gets a proper greeting?” Lin Reenberg, otherwise known as Shelby’s constantly exasperated mother, questioned as she finally shoved the door fully open.

The room was flooded with light. Shelby closed her eyes tighter and curled into herself.

“Shelby, answer your mother.”

Oh, great. Her father was part of the uninvited awakening party.

“I like Rascal more,” she quipped, reaching out to pet her Terror. She still didn’t open her eyes, however.

“Come on,” Lin said, “you have a big day today.”

Shelby knew that her mother couldn’t see her, but she furrowed her brows in confusion anyway, “a big day? Since when? Why am _I_ never told about these things?”

She heard the sound of drawers being opened and knew that her mother was pulling out a suitable outfit for her. “It was sort of a… last minute revelation for us, too,” Lin assured her.

Lin may have patience (a questionable fact in itself), but her father, Dag Reenberg, did not.

“Shelby, you heard your mother. Get out of that bed, now,” he said.

Shelby sighed and forced her eyes open, “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

“Hurry, we’re going to be late,” were Dag’s parting words as he exited the room.

“Late for what?” Shelby asked. She was curious enough that she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Blinking bleary-eyed at her mother, Shelby noticed that there was a cheerful glimmer in Lin’s eyes as she rummaged through her daughter’s belongings. This was… unusual for Lin. And also worrying, as what made _Dag and Lin_ happy was often not even close to what made _Shelby_ happy, “would you mind telling me why you dragged me up at,” she checked the small sun dial which was in the garden in view of her window and widened her eyes, “ _6 am?”_

“Trust me, Shel,” Lin said, and the rare use of the nickname made Shelby’s eyebrows raise, “it would be better for everyone if we filled you in on the way.”

Shelby sighed again. She had long ago realised that Lin gave answers when she wanted to, and not before, “is it something I can bring a book to?” she asked.

“No,” came the answer, causing her shoulders to slump in disappointment, “now, get up properly and put on the clothes by your bed.”

Shelby waited until her mother and Rascal had gone, then pulled on the tunic and skirt she had been instructed to wear. She noticed with annoyance that it was one of the skirts with spikes on. The ones her mother knew she hated.

Huffing in irritation, Shelby stomped into the main room of her family’s hut.

...

“Either of you mind filling me in?” Shelby said grumpily.

“The chief delivered some exciting news yesterday,” began Lin.

“Yes,” Dag agreed, “one of the Dragon Riders returned from the Edge to ask for more riders to train to re-enforce their base.”

“You have _got_ to be kidding me,” Shelby cried, stopping in her tracks.

“Shelby, this is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Lin reasoned.

“I can’t be a Dragon Rider,” Shelby cried, “I just _can’t._ You guys would remember, if you put your exceedingly small minds to it, that I am terrified of heights.”

It was true. Shelby couldn’t climb on objects the height of her waist without getting dizzy.

“You’ll get used to it,” Dag said dismissively before continuing to walk. Lin gave her daughter a pointed look, which clearly meant ‘follow us or you’ll regret the day you were born’, and turned around. Soon both her parents were walking away from her. Shelby sighed, _well, it’s not as if I’m likely to be accepted,_ and did as her mother silently asked.

She had seen the Dragon Training Arena before, but she had never been in it. Her mother had said that it had once belonged to the Dragon Riders while they were defeating Dagur the Deranged. Her father had then replied gruffly that it had been put to far better use during the ‘dragon hunting days’. Shelby had lost focus on the conversation long before he began to explain his reasoning.

Nevertheless, it was a strange feeling, walking into something that was part of your history. It was already filled with Vikings, who were undoubtably her new ‘competitors’.

“Hello,” a high voice said from the side. The family of three turned to see one of the Dragon Riders, Fishlegs Ingerman, standing with a small piece of paper ready to take her name.

“Hi,” Shelby greeted when her parents made it clear they were leaving it up to her.

“I assume you’re here for the auditions,” he said.

“Yes.”

“What’s your name?” he asked, charcoal at the ready to record it.

“Reenberg. Shelby Reenberg,” Shelby answered.

“Shelby Reenberg,” he said slowly as he dragged the charcoal over the paper, “And I’ve been asking people who come in for some things they’re good at so I can organise the tests better. Tracking. Fighting. Reading. Anything, really, so long as it could come in handy.”

Shelby was tempted to say, ‘I’m not really good at anything,’ , but her parents must have seen this coming because Lin cut in, “she’s not much of a fighter, but she knows more about dragons than I would have thought possible for her age.”

 _A little optimistic,_ Shelby thought, _but not far off. If she starts rattling on about how good an archer I am, though, I might have to intervene._

Lin continued, “she’s read pretty much every book she can get her hands on. She can draw quite well, too.”

Shelby noticed that while her mother was all too pleased to exaggerate greatly on her, admittedly few talents, the issue of being afraid of heights did not come up at all in Lin’s speech.

Fishlegs, none the wiser, had a grin on his face that was growing wider and wider with each book-related skill mentioned, “excellent. We haven’t had many smart Vikings come here yet. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of chance of being chosen, Shelby.”

Shelby forced herself to smile warmly, “I’ll do my best,” she promised.

Inside, she was thinking, _please don’t let me be chosen for the simple reason that I can recite the alphabet._

“You’d better,” Dag’s rough voice broke her from her thoughts, “or you will regret it.”

“Uh,” she started.

“I’m serious,” Dag didn’t seem to care that Fishlegs was watching him make the threats, “fail me, and I will drop you off on Changewing island to be eaten by the wild dragons.”

Shelby felt a pang of fear run through her. Although she doubted her father would actually leave her to be eaten by wild dragons, he had beaten her in the past. Quite a lot.

Shelby backed away from her parents, “I’ll see you later, then.”

Lin narrowed her eyes slightly, but gave what Shelby thought was supposed to be an encouraging nod. And with that, Dag and Lin walked away, leaving Shelby staring after them.

“Sooo,” Fishlegs said, “your parents are pretty intense.”

Shelby nodded absently, “I think they want me to be a Rider just to get me out from under their feet.”

“Do _you_ want to be a Dragon Rider?”

The question surprised her. What was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to lie and say she hoped that she would be able to train for the honour, or tell the truth and maybe get him to not choose her?

“Not really,” she admitted, “I’m scared of heights, scared of most dragons, and scared of combat. I’ll be no help at all on dragonback. But I kind of do want to get away from my parents, especially my father.”

“I was afraid of heights too when I started out,” Fishlegs admitted.

“Really?” Shelby asked, raising her head.

“Yeah. None of us were particularly cut out for the job. You should have seen _Snotlout_ when he first started out. He could barely fly for 10 seconds without setting something on fire. He still is like that, actually,” Fishlegs said, “but we got better, and look at us now.”

Shelby shrugged. She really didn’t want to be put anywhere near a large dragon.

“It really is worth it, Shelby,” Fishlegs urged, “you should do your best on the tests, at least. You may not be enthusiastic now, but after you’ve met your dragon, and flown for a bit, you’ll see that it isn’t so scary after all. None of you will be put into combat before you’re ready.”

Shelby looked at her feet, “I’ll try,” she promised. And this time, she didn’t feel as though she was setting herself up for disaster.


	2. The Tests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I still don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

The tests in strength hadn’t gone very well. Shelby had also flat-out refused to go near the archery tests, much to the amusement of the other competitors and the exasperation of Fishlegs.

But this? This, she could do.

The wannabe Dragon Riders were taking it in turns to be questioned by Fishlegs on dragon anatomy, species, and even injury solutions.

And the Gronkle rider had kindly let her go to the back so that she could have more time to make up her mind on whether the one test she could possibly do correctly was something she wanted to put effort into.

Shelby was going to use that time wisely. There was a huge decision in front of her. A decision that could affect the whole course of her life.

There was no doubt that she could ace this, if she put her mind to it. She could hear the questions posed to the other competitors, and knew that Fishlegs had randomised the cards. This was easy stuff.

But did she want to? The Dragon Riders were heroes, sure, but they had earnt that title through a lot of bloodshed. Shelby just wasn’t convinced that she was strong enough to deal with that.

But she also wasn’t sure she was strong enough to deal with her parents’ disappointment if she came back and said that she hadn’t got the place. It would have been fine if they didn’t know that she was perfectly capable of doing this well. Not only would winning a place among the Dragon Riders smooth out her crinkled relationship with her family, but it would also give her a ticket away from them. She was fine with Lin, but Dag was borderline abusive. Scratch that. Dag _was_ abusive.

And she knew deep down that Fishlegs was right. She _would_ get used to heights and she _would_ get better at dealing with dangerous situations.

So really, what was the problem? Shelby was just being cowardly for even considering giving up.

And on that train of thought, it was Shelby’s turn.

“Hello, Shelby,” Fishlegs greeted.

She awkwardly shuffled her feet, _just get on with it,_ she thought.

The Dragon Rider seemed to realise what she was thinking, “Right, well I’m sure you’ve got the gist of it by now. I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them to the best of your ability.”

His voice was gentle, and Shelby found herself relaxing.

 _There’s nothing to worry about. You’re going to do fine,_ she told herself firmly.

Shelby could see how much effort the Dragon Rider had put into this. In front of him were two large piles of paper. One of them was scruffy and taller, and Shelby assumed that those must be the used ones.

The other only had about fifteen in it. Shelby had seen Fishlegs giving the others about 5 questions each, more if they got too many wrong. That meant there would be about 10 left over.

Fishegs picked up the first card, “alright. Question 1. Which dragon can spit boiling water?”

_Easy. Everyone knows that._

“Scauldron.”

“Correct,” Fishlegs fumbled with the cards, “which dragon did this scale come from? Ah,” Fishlegs lifted a small bag from under the table and pulled out of it a large red scale.

She squinted at it. It was quite round, which meant it was unlikely to be a Deadly Nadder. She thought back to pictures she had seen in her books, “Monstrous Nightmare?”

“Well done. That was a hard one,” Fishlegs complimented, “right. Question 3. What class of dragon does a Nightfury belong to?”

“Strike class.”

“Correct. How many heads does a Snaptrapper have?”

“Four.”

Fishlegs nodded, “and one more. What’s the shot limit of a Gronkle.”

“Six.”

“Very good. You got all five correct,” Fishlegs praised.

Shelby allowed herself a small smile.

Fishlegs quickly wrote down her results on his piece of paper, “I need a moment to think about this. Just talk amongst yourselves while you wait.”

The Dragon Rider went over to the side of the arena, and Shelby turned to face the other competitors.

“Hi,” a small Viking wearing an oversized helmet greeted. He was younger than her by about a year, with sandy-blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

“Hello,” she responded.

“You got the same mark as me on the question test,” he told her.

She shrugged, “I wasn’t really paying attention to the others’ questions.”

“Well, you did,” the other Viking seemed to be responding to her bored tone with nothing but excited friendliness, “I’m Endre, by the way. Endre McCotter.”

“I’m Shelby Reenberg,” she said coolly. She had been expecting the boy- Endre- to shrug and walk away, repelled by her unfriendliness, but instead he stayed.

“You know a lot about dragons. I don’t think I would have gotten that one with the scale,” he complimented.

She shrugged, “I spend a lot of time reading.”

He grinned, “I love books too,” he said, and Shelby could have been imagining things, but there was a glint of sadness in his eyes, “but that was a seriously hard question. I would still have thought you were smart if you hadn’t got the answer right.”

“Sure you would,” Shelby muttered.

“Do you think we’ll get in?”

“Maybe.”

“What dragon do you want? Hey! Fishlegs said we could team up and go after a Zippleback if we’re feeling nervous about training a dragon by ourselves. Do you want to do that?”

“With you?” Shelby asked, surprised by the offer. She looked away, “I don’t know. I think I’m going to try to do this by myself.”

“That’s fine,” Endre assured her, “You just… looked a little lost when I mentioned how you were going to have to train a dragon.”

Shelby was tempted to tell him about the situation with her parents, but resisted the urge. If she was going to be a Rider, she was going to try her best to be equal to the other Riders in every way. She did want this. She _did._

“I’m fine,” she said, a little more harshly than she meant to.

Endre didn’t seem put off by that, “Ok. If you need any help I’ll be nearby. I mean- if we both get in.”

Shelby nodded, not trusting herself to speak. The other Viking cheerfully sauntered off to talk to another competitor.

Suddenly there was a roar, and she turned to see Fishlegs standing by Meatlug.

“Alright,” the Dragon Rider said, “I’ve chosen 15 people to start training. You may not all finish, but if you don’t do well, you can join the Auxiliary Riders.”

If Fishlegs noticed the disgruntled murmuring, then he gave no sign of it.

“I’ve chosen; Gunilla McCotter, Erica Broughall, Shelby Reenberg-”

Shelby almost gasped when her name was called out. She wasn’t sure whether she should be overjoyed or horrified. She didn’t have long to think about it before Fishlegs continued.

“Dusty Robinson, Destin Robinson, Endre Mc-”

“HIM?” roared a brown-haired girl who Shelby vaguely recognised as the girl who Endre had tried to talk to earlier.

Fishlegs regarded her with a small bit of nervousness, “why not?”

The girl brought herself up to her full height, gazing challengingly at the Rider, “My brother may not have told you this, but he is blind.”

Fishlegs’ eyes flashed with surprise, “really?”

“Yes,” the brown-haired girl said, “he’ll never be a Dragon Rider. I’m only saying because I want to protect-”

“You have never wanted to protect me!” Endre protested, “you just want to be the only one in the family to be a Rider.”

“Oh, Endre,” the girl said in a sickly-sweet voice, “you know I care about you,” she turned back to Fishlegs, and Shelby found herself resenting the snooty way she looked at everyone, “he’s in denial, you see. He thinks he can still be useful.”

“That’s enough!” Endre cried, and he sounded so outraged that Shelby wondered if the excitable boy she had spoken to earlier today had been replaced, “I bet none of you realised I was blind!” he challenged, gazing around, “I was born this way. I’ve trained myself so that I act and look like my eyes are perfectly normal. There is no reason for me not to be a Dragon Rider. The only thing I can’t do is read. I can find my way around and fight _just fine._ ”

Everyone looked a little shocked at the outburst. The girl- Shelby finally placed her name as Gunilla McCotter- just stood there looking like she wanted to strangle her brother.

Fishlegs finally continued, “Gunilla, I know you don’t want your brother to get hurt, but I was chosen to pick out the Riders, and I believe Endre’s knowledge on dragons will come in handy.”

Gunilla sniffed, but seemed to recognise that she had been defeated.

 _She wasn’t expecting Endre to react like that,_ Shelby realised. Endre must really want to be a Rider if he was willing to go against his usual personality to argue for himself.

Looking at him, Shelby could see why most people didn’t notice his blindness. Although his eyes were a creepy kind of ice blue, they appeared to focus like any other. He hadn’t stumbled since she’d met him, so he must be amazing at hiding it.

“Anyway,” Fishlegs called, drawing everyone’s attention back to him, “Endre McCotter-”

Shelby saw Gunilla’s eyes cloud over with anger.

“-Folke Ivory, Eydis Maxey, Ingrid Fenlon, Hillevi Hjalmar, Igor Grenham, Kensley Crosbie, Kari Broe, Ragna Dolphin and Osmond Bambrick,” Fishlegs finished, “anyone who’s name has not been called out can leave.”

Shelby saw a few people clench their fists, but for the most part everyone left without argument.

“Ok,” Fishlegs said once they had gone, “ok, so you’re going to be training to be Dragon Riders.”

 _Really?_ Shelby thought a little grumpily. She wasn’t sure what to think about this new development and it was annoying her. The fact that she’d almost said that out loud made her realise that she should probably calm down a bit.

“As you know, Astrid trained the Auxiliary team here, and she didn’t give the Riders their dragons until they had done some basic training. I’m not going to make you do that, because I think the dragon should be trained at the same time as the Rider. So first, you guys need to find a dragon.”

This was met with silence. Then Kensley Crosbie, a boy Shelby had been friends with as a child, spoke up, “so we just go wandering into the woods to tame a dragon?”

Kensley had jet-black hair and green eyes, and Shelby remembered that he was quite a funny person, if a bit annoying.

“No, no, no,” Fishlegs corrected, “tomorrow, I’m taking you to Dragon Island.”

…

This could not get any worse.

Shelby had expected the dragons to be given to them, you know, like any other normal animal training course. But _no,_ she had to go looking for a _wild dragon_ on an island filled with _hundreds of hostile wild dragons._

Fishlegs was taking the trainees to the island in a boat, something which some of the new Riders seemed a bit confused about.

“Sooo…” Destin Robinson was a lumbering mountain of a boy. Like all stereotypical beefy Vikings, he had a brain that must have been about the size of a pea, “You’re training us to ride dragons… on a boat?”

The exasperated sigh that followed this statement could only come from one person. If Shelby was to compare Destin’s twin, Dusty to any one of the Dragon Riders, it would definitely be Astrid Hofferson. Tall, graceful, and athletic, Dusty was everything Shelby was not. And to add insult to injury, Dusty wasn’t like those other half-witted Vikings whose category he would fit nicely into. No, Dusty was smart. Although not knowledgeable, he certainly had the potential to be, “no, Destin,” Dusty snapped, “he’s taking us to where our dragons are.”

“In a boat.”

“Yes, Destin, in a boat.”

“But we’re dragon riders.”

“Not until we have dragons.”

“Mum said I was a dragon rider.”

“That’s because she’s Mum.”

Shelby couldn’t help the snort of amusement the exchange tore from her. Dusty heard and shot her a half-amused, half-exasperated look.

Endre was on the other end of the boat, where he had been placed with his sister, as Fishlegs had interpreted Gunilla’s earlier outburst as her being caring towards her blind brother. She was currently trying extremely hard to ‘accidently’ hit Endre on the head with one of her oars.

“How long do you think it is until we get there?” she asked.

“I can see land in the distance,” Dusty told her, “so that must be it.”

Shelby leaned forward to see if that was true. Sure enough, the outline of an island was becoming visible on the horizon. Shelby once again felt the familiar mix of excitement and foreboding.

“What kind of dragon are you hoping for?” Dusty asked her, leaning forwards.

“Preferably something that isn’t likely to eat me,” she responded.

Dusty snorted, “dragons eat fish.”

“Yes, but I’m so unlucky that they’d probably make an exception,” Shelby retorted.

“Don’t be so negative,” he advised.

 _You’d find it pretty hard to be positive if you had been forced to train a wild, hostile dragon by your idiot parents,_ Shelby thought. Out loud she said, “I’m not a positive person.”

“Positive thinking helps you focus,” Dusty argued.

“Yeah? What if I was about to get killed and I just thought about my favourite food? Would that give me superpowers?” she asked.

Dusty rolled his eyes, “I’m just _saying._ Anyway, going back to what we were talking about before. What dragon are you hoping for? I’ve heard that Dragon Island is full of a variety of dragons. From Changewings to Silver Phantoms.”

She looked at him sharply, “Silver Phantoms?”

Dusty nodded, “there’s been sightings around these parts.”

Shelby shuddered; Silver Phantoms had always creeped her out.

“I was hoping for a Deadly Nadder,” he went on.

“Really? I would not want to be hit with one of those spines,” Shelby pointed out.

“Well yes,” Dusty admitted, “but I’ve always admired Deadly Nadders. They can hit any target with pin-point accuracy.”

Shelby nodded. She knew that, but she felt it would be rude to point that out, “I guess a Nadder would be pretty cool. I kind of want a Gronkle.”

He laughed, “really? The easiest dragon you could possibly think of?”

“Hey! I’m afraid of heights and Gronkles aren’t very fast,” she defended herself.

“But _still._ Please tell me you’re going to try for something better. _Please._ ”

“They’re also pretty cool, they spit lava, they’re easy to feed, and cute.”

“And fat.”

“They are not. Besides, that’s just the Boulder Class look,” Shelby said, “and you’d better be careful. There’s a Gronkle on board who can hear you insulting her.”

Dusty chuckled and leaned back, “look, we’re nearly there.”

Shelby shot a glance at the front of the ship to see if that was true. Sure enough, the shores of Dragon Island were mere metres away from the end of the boat.

It was time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. In the next chapter, the action starts. And we meet Starlight!


	3. Dragon Island

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer (again)- I do not own How To Train Your Dragon.

“You’re going to split up,” Fishlegs said, “But I’m not entirely stupid. You’ll be going in groups of three. And _I’m_ choosing the groups.”

After far too much fuss, Shelby ended up in a group with Dusty and Erica Broughall, a girl she’d never met before. The other groups were: Destin, a friend of Shelby’s called Folke Ivory, and Ragna Dolphin; Kensley, Gunilla, and Endre; Eydis Maxey, Ingrid Fenlon and Igor Grenham; and Osmond Bambrick, Hillevi Hjalmar and Kari Broe.

“Alright, off you go. And _be careful,”_ Fishlegs ordered.

“Which direction do you want to go in?” Shelby addressed the question to Erica, who shrugged.

“This way,” Dusty called, “I think I’ve found my dragon!”

Shelby looked at them, “no, Dusty, those are your dragon’s footprints,” she deadpanned.

Dusty seemed not to hear her. He started following the trail.

“I thought you wanted a Nadder,” Shelby called.

“I do!” he said, “these are Nadder prints.”

“Last I checked, Nadders don’t have four legs,” Shelby pointed out.

Sure enough, the footprints were clearly from an animal with four legs. Additionally, the toes looked longer than the ones on a Nadder.

“Oh,” he said.

“We could still follow them,” Erica suggested.

“No,” Shelby shook her head, “I think those are Zippleback tracks. Unless anyone wants to share?”

Judging by the silence, no one did.

“We should move in a different direction,” advised Erica, “Zipplebacks can be quite territorial.”

Shelby and Dusty both nodded in agreement. They set out in a different direction than the one they had been going in originally and walked for about five minutes before Erica groaned, “ugh. I hate walking. Can we take a break?”

Shelby grunted in agreement and sat down on the floor. She pulled an apple out of her food bag and took a large bite out of it.

“Come on, you guys,” Dusty snapped, “think of it as an adventure.”

“I don’t really like those much, either,” Erica said.

Dusty sighed dramatically and sat beside the two girls, “why are we sitting on the floor?”

“Are you carrying a chair in that backpack of yours?” demanded Shelby.

“No,” he admitted.

“Well there you go, then,”

They sat in silence for about half a minute.

“How long do you think we’d have to take for Fishlegs to come looking for us?” Erica suddenly asked.

“I dunno,” Dusty said.

“Maybe a couple of hours,” suggested Shelby.

“Oh,” apparently that was the end of the conversation. Shelby didn’t press the matter, preferring to look warily around at her surroundings in case any dragons had snuck up on them.

“Come on,” Dusty ordered after a few more minutes of this. Shelby got up without complaint, and when Erica saw that her only ally had left her side, she did too. Pretty soon they were walking again.

“Is it just me, or is there an unusual lack of dragons?” Erica said.

Shelby shrugged, “at least we’re not being attacked by anything.”

Apparently, she spoke too soon, because with timing that would have been comical if the situation hadn’t been so serious, a bright green Monstrous Nightmare burst out of the trees in front of them and roared in their faces. Shelby yelled and began to run in the opposite direction. Dusty followed her, but Erica stayed where she was.

The girl was fumbling around in her bag for the supply of fish Fishlegs had given each of them in order to train their dragons. Shaking slightly with fear, she offered it to the dragon. Luckily, she took Fishlegs’ advice and didn’t try to throw it, instead waiting for the dragon to come to her.

The situation could have gone a lot worse. The Monstrous Nightmare took the fish, as well as the second one it was offered. It growled a bit when Erica extended her hand, but she kept it there, unwavering, and it reached out to touch her gently with it’s nose.

“Well done, Erica,” whooped Dusty.

Erica turned around with a grin, “that could have gone worse,” she said.

Shelby felt her spirits lifting at the display of how easily this could be done.

“Are you still nervous?” Dusty asked her.

“I’m a little less nervous,” she admitted.

“Good. We’ll find you nice Deadly Nadder,” he promised.

“I said I want a Gronkle,” she argued.

“You’re too slight to fit a Gronkle,” he said, “they’re more for beefy people.”

“Look!” Erica called suddenly, and Shelby saw that she had managed to climb on her dragon’s back, “I think I’m going to call him Emerald. What do you think?”

“I think it’s a great name,” Dusty told her, making her grin.

Shelby just nodded.

“Shall we continue?” asked Dusty. He looked even more excited. Shelby wished she could share his optimism. She had a feeling that taming her dragon was not going to go quite as well as with Erica.

It didn’t take long for Dusty to find some more dragon tracks. This time, when he checked with the other two, Shelby confirmed that they were indeed from a Deadly Nadder.

As they were following them, Dusty and Shelby continued to quietly argue about the dragon they were going to find for Shelby. It got to a point when Erica had to intervene, “quiet, you two. Nadders are known for attacking first and asking questions later.”

Erica knew a lot about dragon behaviour, Shelby noticed.

The trail led them to a black Nadder with a grey underbelly and, surprisingly, bright red spines. spines.

Dusty looked at the creature in awe, “that’s going to be my dragon,” he said.

“What are you going to name it?” Shelby asked.

Dusty said, “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Once Dusty had managed to give the dragon the fish and tame it, Shelby was feeling much better about this. She even managed to reconsider the idea of going for a Gronkle.

“See?” Dusty exclaimed when she told him, “I told you that you’d warm up to the idea of a Nadder.”

Shelby nodded, but said nothing.

“Listen,” Erica said suddenly, holding up a hand for the other four to stop, “what’s that?”

Dusty shrugged, “I don’t hear anything,” he said apologetically.

And then a blob of green gel landed on the floor in front of them.

Shelby knew instantly what it was, “Changewings!”

“Run!” Dusty ordered. Neither the humans nor the dragons had any objections. They pelted through the forest, and Shelby took the time to think that she was the only one who didn’t have the support of a dragon.

 _Run now, think later,_ she told herself firmly. But it would be nice to just climb on the back of a dragon and fly away.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind than Dusty had grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the Nadder he’d never gotten around to naming, “come on.”

She felt a shudder of fear run through her, and she stubbornly stopped, “I can’t get on a dragon,” she said.

“For Thor’s sake. You volunteered to join a team of Dragon Riders,” Dusty said, “what were you expecting? Now _come on_ , we haven’t got time to argue.”

She pursed her lips and climbed on the dragon with him. This was so annoying. She had been expecting to conquer her fear of heights slowly.

The Nadder quickly took off, and she felt her grip on Dusty’s shoulders tighten involuntarily. But luckily, she didn’t fall off.

“What are you doing?” she cried as Dusty pulled the dragon around, “we need to go back to the ship.”

“I know, but we need to help Erica,” Dusty argued.

Sure enough, Erica was in trouble. Emerald had been hit in the wing by Changewing acid and the two had crashed. With acid flying at them, the dragon and rider were in the middle of the trail of destruction Emerald had left. As Shelby watched, a missile of acid hit Erica in the arm, and the girl fell to the ground with a shriek.

“Hold on,” Dusty cried. He urged the Nadder downwards, and they scooped Erica up and carried her away from the danger.

“What about Emerald?” Shelby called. The Monstrous Nightmare had been hit a few more times, and had now collapsed in a pitiful heap on the ground.

Dusty looked back and cursed, “there’s nothing we can do.”

Shelby didn’t want to leave the dragon behind, but she had to agree, “let’s go back to the ship before the Nadder gets hit too.”

“Too late,” Dusty cried.

The Changewing acid splattered over the Nadder’s shoulder and the wing collapsed. The dragon, with the three humans it was carrying, began to tumble to the ground.

Shelby screamed as they plummeted. She had been afraid of heights before, but now, when the ground was _actually_ coming towards her, she found that fear multiplied by 100.

_Who wouldn’t?_

The Nadder hit the ground with force enough to send everyone flying. Shelby ended up hitting the ground three times before coming to rest in a groaning heap.

Dusty scrambled to his feet and rushed over to his dragon, “are you ok, buddy?” he asked.

The Nadder squawked and held up it’s wing. The scales on it’s shoulder were half melted and covered in the horrid green gloop.

“I know,” Dusty said sympathetically, scratching the side of his dragon’s neck.

Shelby looked up and whimpered in fear, “Dusty, look!” she cried.

In the trees, loads of Changewings were becoming visible. To Shelby in her shocked and beaten up state, there were over a hundred. They were everywhere!

A huge one- Shelby supposed that it must be the leader- stepped forward, growling. It’s eyes were full of nothing but fury, and it towered over them. It was about to shoot acid at them, but a bolt of flame the likes of which Shelby had only ever seen once slammed into it, knocking it sideways.

Dusty and Shelby looked up to view their saviour. The dragon was growling around at the Changewings, a challenge in it’s huge amber eyes.

Dusty shook his head in awe and whispered to her, “now, _that_ is your dragon.”

Shelby’s breath hitched.

It was a Nightfury.

Shelby had expected the Changewings to put up a fight. They would certainly be able to. The Nightfury looked to be quite young- perhaps an adolescent.

But maybe Changewings were used to easier prey, because they hissed, then disappeared back into the trees.

“Oh, thank Thor,” Shelby said in relief.

Dusty’s gaze was still focused on the Nightfury.

“We should get back,” Shelby said, trying to busy herself with checking on Erica before Dusty could-

“You are pulling a fish out of your bag and giving it to the dragon _right now,_ Shelby Reenberg, because this is the best opportunity of your life.”

-do that.

Shelby turned to him slowly, “funny, that’s almost word for word what my parents said to me about the opportunity to join the Dragon Riders.”

“Was it?” he asked, “well, looks like good luck is flying at you right now, then.”

She sighed and turned to the dragon. It was looking at her curiously, with no amount of anger. It was more of a dark grey than the jet black of Hiccup Haddock’s dragon, with silvery-white scales scattered on it’s underbelly and the undersides of it’s wings, reminding Shelby of stars.

“H-hi,” she greeted, nervous. Dusty and Erica had made it look so simple.

She reached into her bag, trying hard to ignore the wary growl that came from the creature, and pulled out the first fish.

The dragon slowly edged towards it, revealing the reason Hiccup had named his dragon in the way that he had.

“See that, Dusty?” Shelby hissed, “Nightfuries have retractable teeth so their plasma blasts don’t damage them. It’s also to help flatten their heads to make them more streamlined and increase their speed.”

“Fascinating,” Dusty said, “but give the dragon the fish before it eats you.”

Shelby realised the Nightfury had been in the same position while she’d been saying that. She reached out and gingerly put the fish in the creature’s open mouth.

_Snap!_

The dragon’s teeth sprung out and it chomped down on the meal. The fish was gone in about two seconds and the dragon licked it’s lips happily.

It sniffed Shelby, obviously wondering if there was more. She pulled out a second one, which was a bit smaller, but still apparently passable for the dragon. It was gone in even less time.

Shelby fed it the entire stash of fish, because she was rather worried about what was going to happen when she ran out.

_Ok, here goes nothing._

Shelby bowed her head and turned away slightly and reached out her hand, as she had seen Dusty and Erica do.

_Erica! We need to get her back to Fishlegs!_

Shelby might have acted upon that thought, but it was blown away by a wave of relief when she felt cool scales on the palm of her hand.

_Yes! Yes! I did it! I didn’t die!_

She cautiously looked up at the dragon- her dragon. It had it’s eyes closed, but they slowly opened in response the minute twitch in her hand.

The dragon pulled away and sat in front of her.

“There you go,” Dusty said, breaking the silence, “that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Shelby didn’t respond. She was too busy rushing over to her fallen friend, “Erica?”

Erica had been hit in the arm by Changewing acid. She gave a moan when Shelby rolled her over, but didn’t wake up.

Shelby looked at her arm… and almost threw up.

The acid had acted quickly. Most of the skin and muscle on Erica’s arm had been melted away, as well as part of her hand, including her little finger and her ring finger. The edges of the wound were blackened, and the melted flesh was probably what was cutting off the blood which should be pouring out, if Shelby’s small amount of medical knowledge was anything to go by.

“Oh Thor,” Dusty said when he saw it.

Shelby pushed back her nausea, “come on, we need to get her back to Fishlegs. Can your dragon fly?”

Dusty looked at the Nadder, “probably not. Go with the Nightfury. We’ll follow on foot.”

Shelby nodded briskly. There was no time for her fear of heights when it was becoming more and more likely that Erica would lose the use of her arm.

It was only when she got within a few metres of the dragon that she realised that she didn’t know how it would react.

“Hello again,” she greeted.

It warbled softly in reply.

“Listen. My friend is badly hurt and I need to get her back to our ship,” she told it.

She made a mental note that dragons understand Norse because the Nightfury looked over at Erica almost immediately. The amber eyes then turned back to her, understanding glittering in their depths. The great dragon dipped it’s head, inviting her to climb on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I forgot to write in the notes on the other chapters that this is cross-posted on fanfiction.net. If you are like me and find that site easier to manage, then my username is the same as on this account (Dragonlover2006) and the story is also by the same name.


	4. Starlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is quite a short chapter, because most of the action I have planned happens in the next two. I hope you like it!

“Fishlegs!”

The Dragon Rider, who was leaning on Meatlug looking half asleep, looked up when Shelby called. He started when he saw the Nightfury, but didn’t comment when she landed and pulled an unconscious Erica off the dragon.

“We were attacked by Changewings!” she cried, “Erica’s hurt.”

Fishlegs visibly paled when he saw the wound. But he quickly steeled himself, “wash off the wound with seawater,” he suggested.

Shelby looked up in surprise, “seawater? But isn’t that bad for wounds?”

“It’s all we have,” Fishlegs responded.

She felt the fear in her replaced with unjustified anger, “you said we wouldn’t be put into combat until we’re ready!” she almost sobbed, “you said Dragon Island would be safe enough for us to go onto alone.”

“A lot has changed on this island since I was last here,” Fishlegs defended, “for one, there wasn’t any Changewings then.”

“Why didn’t you check?” she wailed. He didn’t answer, but went back to healing Erica. She took a few steps back and tried to calm herself down. This _wasn’t_ Fishlegs’ fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. She took a couple of deep breaths and looked back at Erica.

She could tell he was burning with curiosity about the Nightfury, but he kept focus as they gently cleaned off Erica’s acid-burned arm.

“She might have to have her arm amputated,” the Dragon Rider said, “but she’ll live.”

Fishlegs began to gently bandage as much of the damaged area as he could, and while he did so he said, “so, who’s your friend over there?”

“It rescued us from the Changewing attack,” Shelby cursed herself for her wobbly voice.

She looked over at her dragon. Now that the shock of the Changewing attack was starting to wear off, she was almost knocked over by a wave of excitement.

A Nightfury. She now had a _Nightfury._ A _Nightfury._

“I need to go sit down,” she said to Fishlegs, who nodded.

She climbed onto the boat and sat in the same seat she had been in for the journey to the island. To her surprise, she was followed by the Nightfury.

It decided to sit down between the rows. For a moment the two sat in silence.

But then she could bear it no longer, “I guess I have to give you a name,” she looked at it again, “you know, your silver scales look like stars. What about Starlight?”

The dragon warbled happily.

“Starlight it is, then,” Shelby decided. She reached out and scratched the dragon’s ears. It seemed perfectly comfortable around her now. In fact, Starlight now seemed to look to her for instructions.

“You know, Starlight,” she rambled, “I’ve always wondered about dragons. You seem to be so willing to follow your rider after knowing them for only a minute. I’ve seen that with Dusty’s Nadder and- and with Emerald.”

She got an agreeing hum in response.

“What I was wondering is- is why? Emerald got himself injured for Erica’s sake.”

Starlight’s head tilted to the side, as if the dragon didn’t understand the question.

“Ah, it doesn’t matter. I guess it’s just the way dragons do things, am I right?”

Shelby could have been imagining things, but the next sound Starlight made sounded like a hum of amusement.

“Anyway, so I don’t know much about Nightfuries. No-one does, really. So I don’t know what to look out for in telling males from females.”

Starlight blinked.

“Are you a boy, Starlight?”

The dragon huffed and wacked Shelby on the back of the head with it’s- her tail.

“No? Ok. Sorry. I guess you’re a girl then. Ah now I see it. Your head is _way_ more slender than Toothless’. Not that I’ve seen much of Toothless.”

Starlight gave a gentle hum and licked the human happily.

“Ew,” Shelby complained

She got another dragon ‘laugh’ in response.

“Shelby!” called Fishlegs, coming onto the boat with her, “there was another boy in your group. Is he-?”

“He had to walk back. His Nadder got hit with acid,” Shelby assured him.

“Oh, thank Thor,” the Dragon Rider exclaimed, “I don’t know what Stoick would do to me if someone died.”

She frowned, “he should be here in a few minutes.”

“Do you mind taking your dragon and looking for him, just to make sure he’s ok?” Fishlegs asked.

Shelby frowned. The last two times she had been on a dragon, she had had something to focus on other than the fact that she was really high in the air. She couldn’t do it again, could she?

“Please? I know you’re afraid of heights. I was too. But if something happens to Dusty then I want to be able to help. Just come back and tell me if there’s any trouble,” Fishlegs said.

“Fine,” groaned Shelby.

She made to walk over to Starlight, but found that the dragon was already out of the boat, looking ready to go.

“She’s really intelligent,” Fishlegs said, “it must be a Nightfury thing. You should hope she’s as loyal as Toothless is.”

“That would be nice,” she agreed as she climbed onto her dragon, “ready to go, Starlight?”

The dragon hummed in response and launched herself from the ground. Shelby wrapped her arms around Starlight’s neck and clung on tightly, terrified, as they rose higher.

“I think this is high enough, right?” she asked. Her dragon began to fly further across the island rather than above it. Shelby forced herself to sit up straight on the Nightfury’s back, _you’re going to be a dragon rider,_ she reminded herself, _you volunteered for this. Now get used to it._

They seemed to go over some kind of turbulence and Shelby tensed, squeezing her eyes shut, “I can’t do this,” she told Starlight.

The dragon hummed gently and began to go lower. Shelby felt her stomach rise to her throat as they headed to the ground. They then evened out and Starlight let out a gentle purr which Shelby could feel even on her back.

 _I won’t let you fall,_ the dragon seemed to be saying, _I’ll catch you._

They were metres away from the treetops now. The leaves were rushing past her feet.

And Shelby _liked it._ She was _enjoying_ it.

“Thanks, Mum. Thanks Dad,” she whispered, “this is the best thing anyone’s ever forced me to do.”

Although she had a feeling that the moment their position shifted, the fear would come crashing back.

Shelby and Starlight found Dusty and the Nadder not far from where they had left them. The Nadder was quickly recovering from the acid wounds and seemed to have a spring in his step as he trotted along. She waited for them to reach an area with no trees before announcing her presence.

“Well, hello,” she greeted, gliding just above them, “fancy meeting you here.”

“You seem to have conquered your fear of heights,” Dusty called up.

Starlight landed next to him, and Shelby forced herself not to grab hold of the dragon’s neck for the landing. She wobbled a bit, but kept her balance.

“Well, I can glide on the dragon’s back,” she told him, “but I don’t really know what’s going to happen when we start learning to dodge arrows and stuff.”

“At least you didn’t train a Gronkle,” he said.

“I wouldn’t have minded. I actually kind of like Gronkles,” she said. When Starlight gave a warning growl, her focus on her Rider, she shrugged, “whoa! Someone’s jealous.”

Starlight huffed.

“Don’t worry, I’m glad I didn’t,” she assured the dragon.

“What did you name her?” Dusty asked.

“Starlight. What about yours?”

“I have a few options. Bloodstrike, Redspine, or Nightscales,” Dusty said.

“I don’t like Bloodstrike,” Shelby said, wrinkling her nose.

“Me neither,” agreed Dusty.

“Nightscales is kind of nice,” Shelby added.

“I know, but it’s not very fierce,” Dusty pointed out.

Shelby shrugged, “it doesn’t have to be. Would you call ‘Toothless’ a fierce name?”

“No,” he admitted.

“I don’t think Redspine is very good. Most of his scales aren’t red. I think you should call him Nightscales.”

“Fine,” Dusty said.

“Can he fly yet?” Shelby asked.

“I don’t know,” Dusty walked over to Nightscales and climbed on his back, “alright, buddy, fly.”

Nightscales did so. He wobbled a bit, but remained steady as they rose into the sky.

“This is as high as I’m going,” declared Shelby.

“Come on, scaredy cat,” Dusty urged.

Shelby considered agreeing, but when she looked down and felt her fear of heights return with a vengeance, she decided to give the offer a miss.

“I thought I had it all figured out. I enjoyed the flight here. But when I looked down the second time, I just couldn’t go higher,” she complained when they landed.

“Shelby, something like that isn’t just going to go away in a minute,” Dusty said, “you’re going to have to practice, probably in your own time.”

“I don’t like doing stuff in my own time,” she moaned.

Fishlegs had heard the last part of the conversation and easily guessed what they were talking about, “well, I think it’s a good idea, Shelby. You could do it between training sessions.”

“Did you join the Dragon Riders expecting to laze around a lot?” Dusty teased.

“I didn’t willingly join the dragon riders,” she responded.

She had expected him to be at least a little surprised when she told him how her parents forced the choice upon her, but instead he shrugged, “you had every option to not get the questions right. They would have been disappointed, but I’m sure they would have gotten over it.”

Shelby scowled, but didn’t answer.

“How’s Erica?” Dusty asked Fishlegs.

“Well, she won’t be a Dragon Rider, I’ll tell you that,” Fishlegs said sadly, “most of her arm will have to be amputated, something I’m not willing to do here, with limited medical supplies and only seawater.”

Dusty bowed his head.

“Do you think everyone else got out ok?” Shelby asked.

“I don’t know,” Dusty said. He turned to Fishlegs, “want us to go check?”

“No. They’ll probably be back soon anyway and you can do more flying then,” Fishlegs saw straight through what Dusty really wanted.

“How do you want to do more flying?” Shelby demanded.

Dusty shrugged, “I like it. Besides, you ride a Nightfury now. You’ll probably have to do a lot of missions that involve flying particularly fast.”

“That’s true. Nightfuries are some of the fastest dragons we know of. If there’s a mission that involves speed, you can bet Hiccup will want the Nightfuries to do it,” Fishlegs agreed.

“And Starlight might be faster than Toothless because of Toothless’ prosthetic tail fin. Think about it, Shelby, you could be riding the fastest dragon in the Archipelago,” Dusty said.

“Nadders can go a bit faster than Nightfuries,” Shelby pointed out.

“Yeah, when they eat chicken,” said Dusty.

“Look,” Fishlegs interrupted, “some of the others are coming back.”

Sure enough, emerging from the bushes were Osmond, Hillevi, and Kari.

“We emerge victorious,” Osmond announced. He was quite well-muscled and stout, with light brown hair and tanned skin.

A magnificent Zippleback followed them. Shelby’s eyes widened. She had never seen this kind of pattern on a Zippleback. One head, along with the whole left side of the body was bright red. The other half of the dragon was sky blue.

“Wow,” Fishlegs breathed, “it must be some kind of birth defect.”

“What did you call them?” Dusty asked.

“Her name is Skyfire,” Osmond said.

“The blue head is Sky. She’s mine,” Hillevi said.

Hillevi had the lightest blonde hair Shelby had ever seen on any teenager. It was almost white. She had light blue eyes and was soft spoken, with a lovely gentle voice.

“And the red head is Fire. I’m going to be riding her,” finished Osmond.

Fishlegs nodded approvingly, “and what about you, Kari?”

To Shelby’s surprise, the ginger-haired girl burst into tears, “I chickened out,” she sobbed, “I couldn’t do it.”

“That’s fine,” to Shelby’s surprise it was Dusty who responded, “you’ll get another chance.”

“Y-you don’t understand,” wailed Kari, “I can’t do this. I can’t be a Dragon Rider.”

“She almost had a Monstrous Nightmare. But it ran away and it’s tail caught on her arm,” Hillevi explained, and Kari held up her arm, where there was a large gash.

“Come here and I’ll put a bandage on it,” offered Fishlegs gently.

Still sniffling, Kari was led onto the boat to be healed.

“How many more people do you think will have gotten hurt,” Shelby asked worriedly.

“Only Kari, I think,” Hillevi said, “and- what happened to Erica?”

Shelby pointed to the boat, “she got hit by Changewing acid,” she explained.

Hillevi nodded sombrely.

“It’s awful. She’s going to lose her arm,” Dusty added, making Hillevi gasp.

“Oh Thor. Did she get a dragon?” Osmond asked.

“Yes. But he got attacked by the Changewings as well. We think he might have died,” Dusty said.

Shelby suddenly wanted a change of subject, “your dragon is beautiful,” she said.

Hillevi smiled, “I know.”

“I like Dusty’s dragon,” Osmond said, “wait. Where’s Shelby’s dragon? Did you get one?”

“Starlight?” Shelby called, looking around, “Starlight?”

Starlight came flying down from the treetops. Shelby opened her mouth to ask where she’d been, but then she noticed.

Starlight was carrying a dead body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Please leave a comment.


	5. The Deadly Chase

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer- I still don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

The form which had once been Eydis Maxey was covered in claw marks which were still bleeding slightly. There was a bright orange Nadder spine sticking out of her chest, and Shelby guessed that was the wound that killed her.

“Fishlegs!” Dusty called.

“Oh, Thor, not another one,” Fishlegs cried when he saw her.

Eydis was unmistakeably dead. The fact that blood wasn’t being pumped out of the wounds was proof enough. But Fishlegs still checked for a pulse for at least 30 seconds. The Dragon Rider stared at the body, anguish in his eyes.

After a while, Hillevi asked, “Fishlegs, what do we do now?”

Fishlegs shook himself, “me, Shelby and Dusty are going to go looking for the rest of Eydis’ group. Actually, we’re going to look for all of the rest of the groups. Hillevi, Osmond, I want you to stay here in case any of the others come back. If they do, then I want you to explain the situation and make this spot as defensible as possible. Something’s going on with the dragons around here.”

Everyone nodded, even Shelby.

She hurried over to Starlight, shaking slightly with the anticipation of the flying that was to be done. With a final glance at Hillevi and Osmond, the three Dragon Riders took off.

“Who else was in Eydis’ group,” called Dusty.

“Ingrid and Igor,” Fishlegs told them.

“Do you remember where you found her, Starlight?” Shelby asked her dragon.

Starlight hummed and banked to the right. Shelby let out a little yelp, but didn’t try to get her to stop.

“Was it around here?” she asked.

Starlight landed on a spot near where the beach was.

“Here?” Shelby verified.

She got a purr, which she assumed meant yes.

“What are you doing, Shelby?” Dusty asked.

“This is where Starlight found Eydis,” she called up.

Dusty nodded and landed Nightscales, followed swiftly by Fishlegs and Meatlug.

Suddenly, a huge Titan Wing orange Nadder burst out of the trees behind them. It looked wild and crazed, and it didn’t even stop to regard them before it charged.

Shelby shrieked and ran over to Starlight. The Nightfury quickly took off with the Nadder in hot pursuit. She could see, out of the corners of her eyes, Dusty and Fishlegs doing the same thing.

The Nadder let out a blast of fire which almost hit her, but Starlight managed to dodge and it blasted uselessly to the side. However, the sideways movement of the dodge caused Shelby to tumble off her dragon’s back and towards the ground. She yelled, “Starlight!” as she fell, but the dragon wouldn’t be fast enough. She would have to take matters into her own hands.

She landed in front of the Nadder, which let out another blast of fire. She rolled out of the way, feeling the searing heat on the side that was closest.

The roll took her to a spot next to a large amount of bush. She had a glimpse of brambles, leaves and… a pair of terrified eyes? Then the crazed dragon’s tail slammed into her side and she was torn away. Luckily the spines were folded, or it would have been a very unfortunate end for Shelby Reenberg. It still hurt, though, and she lay on the floor, winded, sure that she had broken at least half of her ribs.

The dragon swung around, snarling, but before it could pounce on her, Starlight finally noticed her Rider on the ground. A blast of her fire later, and the Nadder’s attention was no longer on Shelby.

“Wait! Don’t hurt her!” Fishlegs cried when he noticed that the Nightfury had a blast aimed at the Nadder’s face.

“Don’t hurt _her?”_ Shelby demanded, “what about _her_ hurting _me?”_

“She’s hurt,” Fishlegs insisted.

Shelby noticed that there was a wire wrapped around the dragon’s neck. It looked like it had been there for a long time, and the wounds it had caused were no longer bleeding.

“She must have been driven to insanity!” gasped Dusty from the back of Nightscales.

Shelby shot him a glance and said grumpily, “oh, you look like you’re having fun up there, on the back of your dragon. _Not helping at all.”_

“I can’t get a clear shot,” he told her angrily.

She opened her mouth to retort, but the Nadder finally lost focus on Starlight and looked back at her.

“Oops. We’ll talk later,” she called to Dusty before running as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

Starlight roared in protest as her Rider was chased through the woods by the other dragon. There was no doubt that Shelby’s Nightfury could easily catch up with them, but Shelby could tell she was lost on what to do. Trying to hit the Nadder could result in hitting Shelby, and there wouldn’t be time to grab her and escape if Starlight tried to land.

She tried not to think too hard about it, preferring to concentrate all of her energy on running. It had never been her strong point, and she could feel herself quickly tiring. The air was ripping it’s way in and out of her lungs like a dagger on each breath. She had… to… stop.

The rapid _thunk thunk thunk_ of her pursuer’s legs was suddenly replaced by a fierce roar and a crash. Turning around, Shelby saw that Starlight had thrown herself into battle and the two dragons were grappling fiercely.

She almost continued running, but realised that it wasn’t very nice to just leave her new friend to fight a crazy Titan Wing Nadder on her own. She looked around for something she could do to help.

At a complete loss, Shelby pulled out the small hunting knife from her pocket and tried to get an aim on the orange dragon. She had never been _too_ bad at throwing daggers, so if she could just get a clear shot there was at least a 50/50 chance she’d hit somewhere on the dragon.

But she didn’t want to hit Starlight, so she resolved to wait until her dragon was completely on the other side. It didn’t seem too likely that would happen on it’s own, so she began to edge around the pair.

Right. The black dragon was almost completely shielded by the orange dragon from this angle. There was no way even Shelby, Queen of missing targets, could miss. She blinked as her mind conjured a memory as if to prove her wrong.

<Flashback>

_Little Shelby followed Dag as he led her to the targets. Her father was very different to how she knew him now. His beard was fuller. His arms were well-muscled- a far cry from the slightly overweight Viking he was today. But the most startling difference was that his eyes twinkled. There was no quiet disdain when he set his eyes upon his daughter, like she had grown used to seeing._

_Neither of them were aware that that was about to change._

<End of flashback>

Shelby blinked to clear her head. She had a shot. She wasn’t going to blow it.

<Flashback>

_“You need to flick your wrist to give the knife more momentum,” was the advice Dag gave his daughter._

_Little Shelby nodded eagerly._

<End of flashback>

 _STOP!_ She thought angrily, _I can’t focus on that now. I have to do this._

<Flashback>

_A scream. Red. The brightest colour of red Little Shelby had ever seen. It was everywhere. A cry of anger. A thump. Pain._

_“Your father will live, but he will be scarred forever.”_

_Little Shelby buried her head in her arms. If she messed up this badly from throwing a dagger, she could never be a Viking. She would never train as a warrior._

<End of flashback>

Shelby let out a cry and threw the knife as hard as she could towards the warring dragons. It did hit the orange scales, but it hit handle-first, which didn’t really do much. Shelby hissed in anger and went to retrieve it, but jumped back when she was almost sent flying by Starlight’s tail. This was no place for a human, she realised.

Cursing herself for leaving Starlight behind, she pelted off in the direction she had come in. Hopefully she would be picked up by either Dusty or Fishlegs.

As she passed the bush she had almost face-planted in earlier, when she was rolling to avoid the Nadder, she felt a hand grab her wrist and was dragged down.

She struggled, but a hand was put over her mouth to muffle the shriek.

“Quiet,” a voice hissed.

She swung around to see one of her fellow Riders-in-training, Ingrid Fenlon.

“Ingrid,” she breathed, “for a moment I thought-”

“Shh,” the girl repeated, putting her index finger over her own lips.

Shelby quickly realised the danger. The sound of the fight had grown silent. One of the dragons had won.

And Shelby had a horrible feeling she knew which of them it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really short because I wanted a cliffhanger and I got a cliffhanger.


	6. The new team of Dragon Riders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer- I don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

The squawk of a Deadly Nadder had never sounded so ominous to Shelby as it did now. All the time, on Berk, she was hearing the noise, and she was always amazed by the dragons’ ability to make each one sound exactly the same emotions-wise, despite how much each situation was different from others.

But now, after what she’d just been through? She wouldn’t be surprised if the sound always spooked her.

It wasn’t long before a gleaming red eye appeared by the bush. There was nowhere for Shelby and Ingrid to hide.

The breath of the dragon huffed in and out, and Shelby could feel it on the exposed skin of her right arm. It hot enough that Shelby had to resist the urge to flinch. She was sure she would have some mild burns if they got out of this alive.

 _Think positively,_ Dusty’s voice said in her head. _When_ they got out of this alive. She was sure she would have some mild burns _when_ they got out of this alive.

She felt movement in the bush behind her, and without turning she knew it must be Ingrid. Was Ingrid scrambling out of a back exit? Shelby turned her head ever so slightly so she could see the other girl out of the corner of her eye…

…To see the glint of metal as Ingrid raised a large dagger above her head.

Shelby would have liked to be the one to refuse to let her friend kill the poor dragon, but to be honest, she was rather relieved when Ingrid managed to bring it down onto the Nadder’s eye, piercing straight into it’s head. It roared in pain and thrashed, ripping the dagger out of Ingrid’s hand. But the damage was done. After more pained struggles and screams, the dragon collapsed with a thump.

There was silence.

Then, “i-is it dead?” Shelby asked shakily.

“Shelby?” came a panicked call, “SHELBY?”

“I’m here!” she shouted back in response to Fishlegs, “what in Thor’s name took you so long?”

“We couldn’t get a shot of the dragon without injuring you or Starlight,” Fishlegs explained.

“I killed it,” Ingrid squeaked suddenly.

Shelby turned to look at her brown-haired friend. Ingrid was looking shocked. Her eyes were twice the size of what they usually were, and she was shaking slightly.

Ingrid continued, “I’m supposed to be a Dragon Rider to protect dragons and I killed it.”

“You had to,” Shelby said, trying to calm her down, “it was the dragon or us.”

“I killed it,” Ingrid whispered again.

Shelby realised that Fishlegs and Dusty would be far better at this than she was and turned back to the entrance to their hideout, “Fishlegs, I’ve found Ingrid. She’s here.”

There was a thump as Meatlug landed, followed by the slightly nimbler landing of a Nadder.

“Ingrid?” Fishlegs called.

“I’m here,” the girl said.

They climbed out. Both of them were relatively unscathed, aside from cuts and scrapes that were to be expected when you sat in a bramble bush.

“Is it dead?” asked Dusty, looking uncomfortably at the Nadder.

Ingrid burst into tears, “it’s all my fault! I can never be a Dragon Rider if my first response to a dragon is to kill it.”

“It’s not your fault,” Shelby repeated. She would have said more, but then she remembered a certain black dragon, “oh Thor! Starlight!”

She raced over to the pile of black scales that was her dragon.

Starlight was thankfully in one piece, but there were a couple of claw marks and two Nadder spines on various places on her body. She wasn’t unconscious from them, though, as they were both nowhere near any vital organs. She must have got a hard bump on the head from the Nadder’s tail while they had been fighting.

“She’ll be fine,” Fishlegs assured her when he took a look at the dragon, “she’ll just need to rest.”

Shelby nodded and bent down by her dragon, “Starlight? Starlight, wake up.”

The Nightfury blinked blearily and raised her head slightly. Shelby almost wanted to hug her, but was wary of how it would be taken.

Meanwhile, Ingrid was still quiet and muttering, “I killed it,” over and over again in a whisper.

Fishlegs approached her slowly, so as not to startle her, “Ingrid, do you know where Igor is?”

Ingrid looked up, “he’s dead. They both are. Eydis and Igor,” she blinked, a tiny bit more clarity coming into her eyes, “and it’s _all your FAULT!”_ she finished, pointing at Fishlegs, “you brought us here. You should have _made sure_ there were no mad injured dragons roaming around.”

To Shelby’s surprise the Dragon Rider didn’t even try to defend himself, “I’m sorry,” he murmured.

“Should I take her back to the boat?” offered Dusty.

“That would be helpful,” Fishlegs said gratefully, “we’ll follow as soon as we figure out a way to carry Starlight.”

“I have to get his body,” argued Ingrid, racing back into the bush. A few moments a later, she came out half carrying- half dragging the body of Igor Grenham. Igor was one of the older recruits, and Shelby was sure he’d be a huge loss to the team.

Dusty, to his credit, didn’t say anything as he helped Ingrid haul her friend onto Nightscales’ back. They flew away in silence.

“Oh, this has gone so wrong,” Fishlegs muttered as he watched them fly away.

Shelby felt a stab of sympathy for him, so she bit back her comment of, ‘ _What makes you think that?’_ in favour of gently trying to work out how to remove the Nadder spines. Starlight shifted uncomfortably, and Shelby put a comforting hand on the dragon’s head, “this might hurt but it’ll make you feel much better.”

She took a moment to brace herself, then pulled the spine out of the dragon’s flesh. Starlight hissed, but to Shelby’s relief didn’t bite her or anything. She set it aside and began to work on the other one.

“Can Meatlug carry Starlight?” she asked Fishlegs.

“I think she could,” the Dragon Rider said.

So that’s what they did. In the end, they had to enlist the help of a wild Nadder (which thankfully hadn’t gone crazy with pain this time) and worked together to carry Starlight back to the boat.

There was a small crowd waiting for them when they got back. What surprised her most was how many people managed to get dragons. No, actually, what surprised her the most was the _kinds_ of dragons that were waiting for them back at the boat.

“Endre! You got a Silver Phantom?” she cried in awe when she saw the large dragon standing by her blind friend.

Endre beamed as Kensley said, “I couldn’t believe it when he went after it with that fish. It was incredible.”

The boy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, “they are supposed to be quite docile.”

“It was still really brave of you, though.”

Kensley himself had managed to train a purple Gronkle. He had announced jokingly that he was going to call her ‘Boulder’ because she was the ‘most important dragon in Boulder Class’.”

Gunilla was scowling. She had gone after a Changewing in the hopes of outdoing her brother. The dragon had been delighted to receive the fish and had happily bonded with her as it didn’t have a pack, but after a while Endre had noticed the misty white of the dragon’s eyes. Gunilla’s dragon was as blind as her brother, who she had spent her life mocking for his blindness. The irony of it almost made Shelby laugh.

Ragna Dolphin had taken her surname seriously and had purposely tried to find a Scauldron. It seemed that all of the luck that had been given to Shelby in finding a Nightfury had been taken from Ragna, as the girl had made her group (consisting of her, Destin and Folke) search endlessly for one despite the fact that there was no way there would be any so close to land. The three of them were all empty-handed. It seemed unlikely they would ever be getting dragons, as Shelby doubted Fishlegs would be taking anyone else to search for them.

“Alright, guys,” the Dragon Rider announced, “we’re going straight back to Berk. Those of you who have dragons, you’re going to help Meatlug and I tow the boat. Except Shelby. The rest of you will go in the boat.”

Shelby joined Kari, Ingrid, Ragna, Destin, and Folke with Starlight following behind. The dragon had just enough strength to walk with her rider to the boat, but she quickly laid down afterwards. Shelby sat in a seat next to her and gently patted her head.

“We’ll be home soon, Starlight,” she whispered, “and then this nightmare will be over.”

“I thought we were all going to get dragons,” complained Destin.

Shelby felt anger rise in her, “well, we didn’t.”

“Why did we have to turn back?” the boy went on, turning childlike eyes around the group.

Ragna hissed through gritted teeth, “you may not have noticed, Destin, but two people died,” she told him.

“And one got injured,” added Shelby, gesturing to the still-unconscious Erica.

“But _I_ didn’t,” Destin pointed out.

Shelby decided not to get too angry. Destin obviously had something mentally wrong with him and shouldn’t be in the Dragon Riders anyway. But it annoyed her to no end how disrespectful he was to her fallen friends.

“I’m so disappointed in myself,” Kari spoke up, “how _could_ I have been so cowardly?”

Folke said gently, “Osmond told me you’ve had a bad shock, Kari. You mustn’t blame yourself.”

Kari didn’t respond, just looked away sadly.

“And I- I killed a dragon,” said Ingrid, “it’s probably best that I never got to train one.”

“Don’t talk like that,” said Folke.

But no-one responded, and Shelby sensed that the conversation had come to an end. She could only feel relieved.

The five Vikings sat in depressed silence for the remainder of the journey.

...

“We’re so proud of you.”

Shelby blinked. These were definitely words she wanted to hear, but not after the deaths of two people she knew.

“I-I need to be alone right now, Mum,” she said. She pushed past them to her room. It almost felt strange not to have Starlight by her side, even though she had only had Starlight for an hour at most. Fishlegs had told her to leave the dragon at the arena, so she could go straight down there in the morning for the first session of training.

“Shelby,” her father’s voice broke her from her thoughts.

She sighed in annoyance, “yes, Dad.”

“Will you be going through with the training?”

Fishlegs had given everyone who had managed to train a dragon the option of ducking out because of what they had been through on the island. He said that if they did not want to join the Riders, all they had to do was not show up tomorrow and he wouldn’t ever bother them again, not even to take away their dragons.

She blinked at Dag, “I don’t know.”

Dag narrowed his eyes. This was obviously not the answer he was expecting.

 _Well, what_ did _you expect after what happened on the island? Do you have no sympathy?_

“We’ll wake you up early in the morning in case you decide you do,” was all he said before turning back to sharpening a sword.

Shelby almost fell over in shock. Did her father just give her an option? Was this a dream? Did she need to wake up?

 _Who are you, and what have you done with Dag Reenberg?_ she wondered as she walked into her room and all but fell onto her bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.  
> Please please please leave a comment. I've only had one on this site and it's not helping my enthusiasm.
> 
> This story will be updated once a week from now on.


	7. Pathetic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby's first day of Dragon Training goes as well as you would expect for someone with acrophobia who is trying to ride a dragon. And hi! I've finally figured out that using chapter summary is maybe a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

As far as Shelby could tell, everyone who had managed to train a dragon had showed up to the arena.

She had been a little late, so when she had come tearing through the gates, her fellow Dragon Riders were already trying to fit saddles made by Gobber overnight onto their new dragons.

Endre waved her over, “hi, Shelby! I started trying to fit one on Starlight for you.”

“Thanks,” she said gratefully. Then she realised something, “wait. How did you know I’d show up?”

He grinned at her, “I may be blind but I’m not stupid. How could you not show up, after finding a Nightfury?”

She smiled softly back, “well, there is that.”

She took a moment to greet Starlight, who thankfully was doing much better, before turning admiring eyes to Endre’s dragon, “so, what did you name her?”

“I thought I’d call her Mist,” he told her.

“It suits her,” Shelby agreed, eyeing the Silver Phantom’s blue and silver scales.

She looked at what Endre had already done. He had fastened the saddle around Starlight, but was having trouble with the strap that was supposed to go around the dragon’s neck.

She took over from him and began to gently tease more length out of the strap even as Starlight tried to pull away.

Shelby gave the dragon a withering look, which made Starlight grumpily huff and stand still for the entirety of two seconds.

“Oh, good, you showed up,” Fishleg’s voice called as he entered the arena, “I was beginning to think we’d lost our Nightfury rider.”

A few people snickered, and Shelby was close enough to hear Gunilla mutter, “I would have taken the Nightfury if she didn’t want it.”

Shelby sighed and turned back to Endre, “what did your sister name her dragon?” she whispered to Endre.

“She hasn’t named him yet,” Endre whispered back. He turned to look at his sister, “hey, Gunilla,” he called.

Gunilla looked up, “yes, dear brother,” she said mockingly.

“Shelby was wondering what you were going to name your dragon,” Endre told her.

“I’m not naming him. I’m going to find myself a new dragon just as soon as Fishlegs stops being paranoid,” Gunilla said.

“That’s not going to happen anytime soon,” Shelby said, only half joking.

“What about a temporary name?” Endre pleaded.

“Fine. But only so that you’ll shut up,” Gunilla said. She didn’t even look at the Changewing before saying, “everyone uses the expression ‘blind as a bat’, so I think I’ll call him Batsnapper.”

Shelby blinked. She didn’t really know how to respond.

“You can’t call a Changewing ‘Batsnapper’,” Endre protested.

“I thought we agreed that you would shut up if I named the dragon,” said Gunilla.

Endre held his hands up in a gesture of peace and went back to wrestling the saddle onto Mist.

It took almost half an hour for everyone to finally get their dragons perfectly fitted into the saddles. Half an hour of Gobber hurrying in and out of the arena with tools to recut, reshape, and in Endre and Mist’s case, redo the saddles.

By the end of the half an hour, everyone was raring to do their first session of proper dragon training. Fishlegs had said that Starlight could do flying with Shelby on her back, but they had to take it easy, so even Shelby was curious about what they were going to do. She wasn’t worried that it was going to go as badly as the Dragon Island incident, because Fishlegs seemed the most badly affected from that and she doubted he would be doing anything involving wild dragons ever again in his entire life. At least, not with barely trained teenagers.

“Is everyone ready?” the Gronkle-rider asked.

There was a chorus of ‘yes’, and everyone’s head bobbed up and down.

“We’re going to go for a quick flight around the village, just to get you guys used to being in the saddle,” Fishlegs said.

Shelby climbed onto Starlight, muttering a “here we go,” and half rolling her eyes.

The moment they took off, Shelby realised that the only reason she had been able to fly around on Starlight yesterday was because of adrenalin.

“Woah,” she said as she wobbled.

Starlight looked up at her in concern.

“I’m fine, Starlight. I just need to get used to it,” she assured the dragon.

Starlight was making an obvious effort not to beat her wings too much as they followed the others into the sky.

Dusty slowed to fly alongside them, “are you ok, Shelby?”

“O-of course,” she stuttered.

He shot her a knowing look, “make sure you don’t fall behind too far.”

Nightscales sped up, leaving Shelby staring after her fellow Rider in disbelief. Was no-one going to help her? Even Endre was up at the front, talking animatedly to Fishlegs as they flew. She sighed. Everyone here was trying their hardest to make a good impression and gain Fishlegs’ approval. They weren’t willing to slow down to help her.

“Come on, Starlight,” she said with new determination.

The dragon hummed, as if to make sure Shelby was feeling alright.

“I’ll be fine,” she sighed, before muttering, “honestly. Even my dragon thinks I’m incapable of flying dragon-back properly.”

For that she got a thwack from one of Starlight’s ears.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry,” she apologised.

Starlight sped up slightly, and Shelby ignored the vertigo and resisted the urge to cling on tighter to the saddle. She would have been proud of herself for this feat, but then she realised she was already holding on so tightly that her knuckles were white.

They managed to catch up, and Shelby finally caught some of what Fishlegs was saying, “you need to learn to do the steering. That way, the dragon will be able to concentrate on firing easier in battle. _Especially_ you, Gunilla. I imagine you will have to pay very close attention to where your dragon is flying.” This made the girl in question scowl at the back of Batsnapper’s head.

_Oh, great. I guess he means me, too._

“Use your grip to pull your dragon in the direction they want to go. Don’t be too forceful, though,” he continued.

Shelby sighed and bent to whisper to Starlight, “do you think you could do the steering for now, Starlight?”

The dragon hummed sympathetically, which Shelby took as a ‘yes’.

Shelby took a deep breath and glanced down… and instantly regretted it. She gasped and squeezed her eyes shut, and her grip would have tightened further if that was at all possible.

“Try not to grip too hard,” Fishlegs called to her, “if you don’t have a saddle, the dragon might take that as a signal to speed up.”

“But I _do_ have a saddle,” Shelby protested.

“Yes, but at some point, you might not have one. You just need to get used to holding on properly,” Fishlegs said without a trace of anger.

Shelby, against her better judgement, loosened her grip.

But Fishlegs wasn’t finished, “try to grip with your knees rather than your ankles. If your dragon wasn’t so intelligent, she would be racing off right now.”

Shelby sighed, beginning to wish she just hadn’t showed up, and did so.

“Good,” Fishlegs said, apparently satisfied.

“Can we do that thing with the sea stacks?” Kensley asked eagerly.

Shelby froze. _No, no, no._

“We could do an obstacle course, but we can’t go too fast,” Fishlegs agreed.

He led them to a large cluster of sea stacks. They were quite far apart, and wouldn’t be a challenge at all if they kept to a low speed. Shelby ran that logic through her head again and again as she felt what was left of her confidence fade.

“We could race!” Kensley suggested. Shelby looked around to see that everyone was nodding eagerly at the suggestion.

“After you’ve had a bit of practise,” said Fishlegs, “now, who wants to go first?”

“I will,” Kensley said eagerly. Without waiting for an answer, he urged Boulder towards the course. He was obviously making an effort to do the steering instead of the Gronkle, and Shelby wasn’t surprised. Kensley had always been one of those people who threw everything they had into every task.

There were a few narrow misses in which Boulder had to take over, but Kensley managed to get himself a round of applause when he returned. He bowed as best as he could, mockingly saying, “thank you, thank you,” in response to the praise. In spite of herself, Shelby found herself smiling at the amusing display.

Fishlegs nodded, “well done. You managed the steering well, but you started to get overconfident on the last bit and that caused you to speed up. Remember, don’t worry about speed just yet,” he advised, “and trust your dragon more. I don’t know whether it was because you were trying to practise steering or because you were paranoid, but you were completely ignoring what Boulder was trying to tell you. She doesn’t want to hit the rocks any more than you do.”

Kensley nodded, “I’ll try that next time,” he said.

Fishlegs smiled, satisfied, “Dusty, do you want to go next?”

Dusty nodded and, without stopping to say anything, urged Nightscales forward. He went at a slower pace than Kensley, and he must have been listening to the advice given to the other Rider because he seemed to let Nightscales take the lead a bit more.

As Endre and the Zippleback Riders had their turns, Shelby felt herself despairing. How were they so good at this already? Was she missing something?

“Alright, it’s your turn, Shelby,” Fishlegs said. She shot him a pleading look, and he added, “you don’t have to go fast. You can go slower than walking pace if it makes you feel more comfortable.”

Feeling the burning gazes of the other Riders-in-training on her back, some mocking, some confused, some sympathetic, Shelby gave Starlight a gentle tap on the side to indicate that she was ready.

Gently, Starlight started to move down to the rocks. The dragon carefully manoeuvred around the first one, but Shelby realised when they reached the second that the stacks were closer together than she had originally thought.

In a spit second burst of determination that she was sure she would regret, she whispered, “I’ve got this,” to Starlight to let the Nightfury know she wanted to at least try to steer.

The dragon hummed in slight concern, but let Shelby take over. They wobbled as she tried to find the best way to do it, but evened out.

She easily dodged the second rock, _huh? This isn’t too bad._

Starlight let out a warning growl as her moment of distraction caused them to come too close to a rock for comfort, “oops, sorry.”

She got another ear-slap in the face, and said crossly, “do that one more time, Starlight, and I will purposely crash into the rocks.”

She heard a few of the other Riders snigger, and realised she had spoken louder than she had meant to.

As she got further through, she felt Starlight begin to speed up. Although she thought she was going to fall off, she decided that since she was still going slower than the other Riders had, she could speed up at least a little bit.

They managed to get through a few more tight spaces before Shelby’s vertigo came unexpectedly crashing down on her mind and, in a blind panic, she tried to pull Starlight to a stop. Unfortunately, the dragon had been halfway through a turn and Shelby’s tug threw her off-balance. They crashed into the rock hard enough to send Shelby flying over Starlight’s head. She hit the rock painfully hard, learning what people mean by saying they see stars. She fought to remain conscious and scrabbled for a grip on the rock. Starlight bounced off and swooped back around to try to retrieve her Rider.

Shelby tried to turn her head to see what she could do to get back onto her dragon, or move her hands to reach a better place to cling to, or even just open her eyes.

But her muscles wouldn’t move.

Shelby had heard about paralysis, and she had been confused at how people claimed it was impossible to move after being stung by a Speed Stinger. Surely you just… moved. It couldn’t be that difficult.

So it was kind of ironic that the girl who claimed she could move when under Speed Stinger venom now couldn’t move when definitely not under Speed Stinger venom.

Panic was starting to set in. Irrational panic. Shelby knew that this was only training, and Starlight, as well as the other Riders, were right there, probably quite frustrated. But prying her eyes open and looking down made Shelby realise that she was at least 20 metres from the ocean surface. Even above water, this was, for Shelby, dizzyingly high.

“Shelby?” Fishlegs’ voice sounded surprisingly close, and Shelby wondered how in the name of Thor she hadn’t heard Meatlug’s wingbeats.

She tried to speak, but when her mouth didn’t move, she just made a muffled grunt.

“Shelby, you need to get down from there!” Dusty called.

 _Really? How observant, Dusty,_ she would have snapped if her mouth would allow her. As it was, she just hissed softly through gritted teeth.

A growl came from behind her, which she recognised as Starlight. She wanted to turn around and grab hold of the dragon, but of course, she couldn’t.

“Shelby, I know your scared right now, but you really must snap out of it,” Dusty advised.

Shelby wanted to smack him, “I bet you’ve never had a phobia before,” she forced out.

“I haven’t,” Dusty admitted, “but you’re surrounded by people who can catch you. Just ignore the fear.”

Shelby bit back another scathing retort in order to wiggle her fingers further into a crack on the rocks. Her knuckles hurt, and she was pretty sure they were stuck, but at least she wasn’t plummeting to her death.

“Oh, for Thor’s sake, Shelby,” that was Gunilla, “just turn around and grab the dragon. It can’t be that difficult.”

Shelby adjusted her grip again to support her weight better, then meekly turned around to face the other Riders.

They were surrounding the sea-stack, each about 6-7 metres away from where Shelby was clinging.

“H-hi,” she said.

She got several unimpressed looks.

Before she could think about what to do next, she was grabbed by the back of her shirt and flung upwards with a scream. She landed squarely on Starlight’s back, clinging on for dear life.

“Are you ok?” Fishlegs asked.

She nodded mutely.

The Dragon Rider nodded, “right. That’ll be enough for one day.”

This was met with an angry chorus of protests.

“But you said we could race,” Kensley said, wide-eyed.

“We can do that another time, but I don’t think Shelby would appreciate it if we carry on without her,” Fishlegs explained.

There were a few groans, but everyone followed their trainer in. Shelby couldn’t say she was too disappointed.

“You can take your dragons home, if you have the space to keep them,” Fishlegs told them, “we’ll start tomorrow at the same time and do the same thing.”

Gunilla stubbornly said, “can we do training on our own before then? I’ll need a huge head start if I’m going to be flying with a _blind_ dragon,” she shot a glare at Batsnapper.

Fishlegs shrugged, “if you’re confident enough. But please don’t do anything too dangerous.”

And with that, the Riders landed and Fishlegs walked away.

Shelby began to head towards her house, followed by Starlight, but then she was called back, “Shelby, what in Thor’s name was that? You lost us a whole day of training!” It stung to hear Dusty, who had formerly been so supportive and understanding, talk to her with anger in his words.

She turned to see all six of her fellow Riders waiting for an explanation. Shelby stared back, daring them to say anything else.

At her silence, Osmond narrowed his eyes, “Shelby, have you gone mute?”

“What do you expect me to say? What do you think that was?” Shelby snapped back.

“That was cowardice,” Gunilla said, “but I guess we were expecting some flowery apology and a promise to try harder next time.”

“I’ve suffered from that fear for my whole life, and it’s not just going to go away,” Shelby turned her glare to Dusty, “I thought you understood.”

“I do understand,” Dusty said, “but you need to at least try.”

If Shelby hadn’t lost her temper before, now she did, “oh, I know what you thought, ‘oh, look, it’s just Shelby, smashing herself into stone columns because she’s a scaredy-cat. She’s not trying. It’s not like it was a huge gamble for her to even consider getting into the Dragon Riders. It’s not like her parents are going to disown her if she fails them’.” Shelby paused for breath, gazing around at the surprised eyes.

She didn’t wait for a response, just turned around and began to stalk away.

“Shelby!”

She didn’t respond to Endre’s voice immediately.

“Shelby Reenberg, you turn around right now,” he repeated.

She stopped and faced him, folding her arms in expectation of another angry insult.

“Look, we both have problems, don’t we?” Endre began, “I’m blind, you’re afraid of heights. But if I can be a good Dragon Rider, then surely you can too.”

Shelby hissed under the breath, “it’s not the same,” she said.

“Not the same?” he yelped, “I have it worse than you.”

“Yeah? Well then why didn’t you crash into the rocks?” Shelby challenged, “you did fine, and I didn’t, because being blind doesn’t affect your Dragon Riding skills. Good Thor, I wouldn’t have known you were blind if you didn’t tell me.”

Endre sighed, “Shelby, why don’t you listen you yourself once in a while. You have a problem. It’s a bad problem, and it’s stopping you from becoming a Rider. So, solve it.”

“Oh, I’ll just go out there and solve my entire childhood fear overnight, shall I?”

“None of us got into the Riders expecting an easy time. You just need to do some extra training. I’ll help you if you like.”

“I don’t need help from a blind person,” Shelby didn’t know what made her say it. She was just so mad at everyone right now. But she instantly regretted it.

Hurt flashed in Endre’s eyes. He quickly masked it, “I see,” he said icily, “I’ll just be- I’ll just be in my hut if you want to do some extra training.”

Shelby fought the urge to call after him. She had embarrassed herself enough today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Please leave a comment. Comments are greatly appreciated. And kudos would be good, too.


	8. To Dragon's Edge!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, my 'once a week' idea has gone out the window. I think I'll update just whenever I want instead.  
> Disclaimer: I still don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

** Chapter 8- To Dragon’s Edge! **

The next few hours mainly consisted of lying in her room feeling sorry for herself.

 _How_ could _they be so selfish? I can’t believe Dusty would think I wasn’t trying. I am trying._

_Right?_

Shelby shook her head, “I am _not_ in the wrong here,” she muttered to herself.

She hadn’t told her parents what had happened. Lin had come up to talk to her a few times, but Shelby had pointedly ignored her, and her mother seemed to have gotten the message. Starlight was lying in the corner of the room, occasionally twitching an ear in annoyance when Shelby muttered something out loud.

For the most part, she was alone.

Her thoughts wandered around the events of today, from the disastrous training to the other Riders’ disapproval and even to her conversation with Endre. She felt like she was wallowing in self-pity and misery.

After far too much time spent in this manner, Shelby dragged herself up and exited her room.

 _What do I do?_ She asked herself for the umpteenth time. She wanted to give up her place in the Dragon Riders _so badly,_ but something kept her from racing down to the arena to tell Fishlegs so.

She thought back to her time on Dragon island. It had been terrifying, but there was a few moments, when she was flying on Starlight’s back, that her fear of heights had almost completely faded, and she had felt nothing but complete exhilaration.

_I want to be a Dragon Rider._

She had spent her childhood feeling like she was scared of everything. She was too scared to fight dragons because she was terrible with a sword and shield. She was scared to walk around the island because there were too many cliffs and she was afraid of heights. She was too scared to learn how to use a knife because of the disaster with her father.

<Flashback>

_Blood was everywhere. Her father had collapsed onto the floor, clutching the wound on his leg._

_Her mother was running up, yelling her husband’s name._

_Gothi was shaking her head, desperately scrawling the diagnosis into the sandy ground._

<End of Flashback>

And this was her chance to face her fears. To become something other than Dag and Lin’s scrawny, career-ruining disappointment.

The thought of getting through her training and being free to fly around on Starlight with no worry that she would go tumbling to the ground was enough that Shelby decided, in that moment, that she would push through.

…

Shelby did improve over the next few days. There was a couple of incidents like the one at the obstacle course, but she tried not to let them get to her.

The problem was that no matter what she did, how much she pushed herself, how much extra training she forced herself to undergo, she was always behind.

She could just about do the easy obstacle course by the time the others were able to fly through the air doing flips and barrel rolls and dodge arrows.

By the time she was able to do that, they were able to dive off their dragons and trust that they would be caught.

After the three days it took her to even attempt that, they had moved on to air combat.

Each time she thought she had caught up, she looked over and they were yet again pulling off the impossible.

What was worse was that Gunilla, Osmond, and to a point, Hillevi were all treating her with amused disdain.

Endre wasn’t talking to her.

Dusty was always finding polite excuses not to go near her.

And Kensley was always showing off, which made him a nightmare to talk to. For the most part. There was one strange, out-of-character Kensley moment that wasn’t much better.

“Oh, Starlight,” she murmured to her dragon on about the 9th day of their training, “when will we finish training?”

“Never,” called Kensley helpfully from where he was carefully washing Boulder, “I heard someone say that even the Dragon Riders are still learning new tactics and skills.”

“Thanks for that, Kensley,” she called

He looked at her in concern, “are you ok, Shelby?”

“What makes you think I’m not?”

He shrugged, “it’s just that, when I knew you, you were nice.”

She furrowed her eyebrows, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

He looked back at Boulder, “nothing. Forget I said anything. It’s just that we used to be friends, and I don’t think you were such a prickly sarcastic mutton-head back then.”

For some reason this rubbed her the wrong way, “oh, yeah? How would you know what I’m like? You knew me when we were- what? Five? You have _no idea_ what’s been happening since then.”

“I don’t?” he asked, “it was the talk of the village, Shelby. Everyone knows that you accidentally stabbed your father. But it was when you were eight. Nearly five years ago. _Surely,_ surely, this isn’t because of that.”

She beckoned to Starlight and began to walk out of the arena.

“Shelby! Come back,” Kensley called, “I was just _asking.”_

She was gone.

…

“Hello,” Fishlegs greeted when the trainees were gathered in the arena for their next day of training.

“Hi,” Kensley called enthusiastically, making some people, even Shelby, snort. He had mostly gone back to normal since the conversation he had had with her a few days ago.

Her fists clenched at the memory of it. No matter how much she tried to dismiss him as an idiot, she still hated the thought that maybe he was right about- well- everything.

“This is our last day on Berk,” the Rider announced, “we leave for the Edge tomorrow.”

Everyone nodded. He had reminded them of this yesterday. Shelby had felt a brief flare of panic then, but she had thought about it overnight and realised it wasn’t that bad.

“We have a long flight ahead of us.”

“I heard it takes a day to get there by dragon,” Dusty said helpfully.

“It does,” Fishlegs nodded, “so we’re not going to do any training today. I just need to check that you have packed everything. I see everyone packed bags.”

Shelby nodded with the others. Her own were by her feet. She had gone to Gobber last night to ask for saddlebags, and she could see that the others had too.

“You’ve all brought lots of long-life food, haven’t you,” Fishlegs clarified.

“Why? Don’t they have food there?” Gunilla asked.

“We do, but we’re always in need of more. We don’t have much time for farming. We bring back supplies every time we travel to Berk. If it becomes too much of an issue, then you can keep animals or grow crops yourself,” Fishlegs explained.

“Think about it,” Kensley said to his fellow Dragon Riders, “all the freedom we’re going to have. A whole island to explore.”

“Dragons to ride,” added Dusty.

“Huts to build,” said Hillevi.

“Dragon eye notes look at,” Endre chirped, “or have read to me.”

“A nice lack of parents,” Shelby said without thinking.

To her relief, instead of muttering snide comments and giving her weird looks, everyone burst out laughing. She ducked her head in embarrassment.

Fishlegs sounded amused, “yes, and you can do your own projects, build what you want with your dragons, and train however you like.”

“It sounds like some kind of paradise,” said Dusty.

Fishlegs laughed, “well, you do have to fight Dragon Hunters,” he pointed out.

“Good. I’ll show those fools what happens when you mess with dragons,” Gunilla said determinedly.

“Specifically, your own _blind_ one,” Endre, who had never missed an opportunity to tease his sister mercilessly about her dragon, said.

“Anyway,” Fishlegs said, recognising that the conversation was about to get heated, “other than food, you’ll need a few blankets. We don’t have a lot of spares on the edge, and those that we do have are kept aside for first aid.”

“Check,” Kensley said.

When no-one interrupted to say they had forgotten it, Fishlegs continued, “you’ll also need plenty of water for the journey.”

Everyone nodded.

“If you’re taking pets- hang on- is anyone taking pets?” Fishlegs asked.

Hillevi, Gunilla, Kensley and Shelby all put their hands up. Shelby was taking Rascal, as she didn’t want to leave him alone with her parents. They might- well- Shelby didn’t know what they would do but she guessed it wouldn’t be good. Neither of them had ever taken to the Terrible Terror, they just had him to send letters with.

“Right… What are you taking?” Fishlegs asked.

“I’m taking a dog,” revealed Dusty.

“Can you not possibly leave the dog with your family?” Fishlegs pleaded.

“No. Paws hates my family. We don’t know what it is, but he won’t let anyone look after him but me,” Dusty insisted.

Fishlegs sighed, “fine. But it might be a bit difficult to keep a dog on the edge with the number of wild dragons.”

Dusty nodded, as if he had been expecting this.

“I’m taking a Terrible Terror,” Shelby butted in before she was left for last.

Fishlegs nodded.

“Hillevi and I are both taking Terrible Terrors too,” Gunilla said.

“I’m taking a sheep,” that was Kensley.

Everyone stared at him.

“What?” he asked, “it’s my brother’s fault. He’s such a big Dragon Riders fan that he picked a sheep in my father’s field and named it Sheep, after Tuffnut’s Chicken. He insisted that I take Sheep along and introduce him. I’ll probably take him back afterwards.”

“Right,” Fishlegs agreed. Shelby could have sworn he muttered, “oh, good Thor,” under his breath before continuing, “you guys have the remainder of the day off. I wouldn’t do any training. Get lots of rest and I’ll see you tomorrow a few hours before our normal time.”

…

“What are you packing for?”

Shelby nearly jumped a metre into the air when her mother said the words, “h-h-hey mum. H-how long have y-you been standing there?”

“You’re not planning on running away, are you?” Lin asked suspiciously.

“What? No! Of course not,” Shelby said. She thought quickly, “I-I was just excited over the new saddlebags I got for Starlight. I’m trying to see how much stuff I can fit in there.”

Shelby had decided against telling her parents the exact time she was leaving. She would rather just disappear without a trace. They might figure out where she had gone (in fact, they most likely would, since she would have disappeared at the same time as all the other Dragon Riders), but if they didn’t, then she had the option of not seeing them again for a good few years. And that was an option she liked.

“Shelby,” her mother said seriously, “I was thinking. I know your father makes it seem like you _have_ to be a Dragon Rider, and it’s true, I would be delighted if you went through with it. But if you want to duck out, I’ll talk to him. You won’t be punished.”

Shelby stared at her mother in disbelief. But the only emotion she could summon up was anger, “and you only say this now?” she cried, “if you’d told me I could pull out two weeks ago I would have. But me and Starlight- we’re a team now! They might take her away from me if I don’t choose to be a Dragon Rider.”

“That’s not why you’re running away, is it?” Lin asked worriedly.

Shelby sighed, “if I tell you where I’m going, then you won’t tell Dad?”

Lin shook her head solemnly.

Shelby looked back at her half-packed bags to avoid her mother’s eyes, “I’m leaving for the Edge. Our training is finished now, at least the training we’re going to do on Berk.”

Far from looking pleased or proud, Lin looked alarmed, “So soon? Is that safe?”

Shelby glared at her indignantly, “you’re one to talk about safety. You threw your 13-year-old daughter, who’s afraid of heights, into Dragon Rider training.”

Shelby fully turned to the bags and continued folding her entire supply of clothes to put in them. A glance back told her that her mother had left the room.

A sense of foreboding fell over her. Whether she liked it or not, she was entering a new stage of her life.

And she might not ever come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I still have only one comment, which is really frustrating. But I'm not abandoning this story as it's literally my favourite thing ever. So take that, comments.


	9. The Great Beyond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Apprentices arrive on Dragon's Edge.  
> I forgot to do a summary for the last chapter. Oops. I will get used to this eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

“Into the Great Beyond!”

“The Great Beyond!”

“We are flying to the Great Beyond.”

To pass the time, the Riders-in-training were trying to re-enact what it had been like when the original Riders had made this journey.

“Shut up,” Shelby had said this several times, and she had been acknowledged only once. That was for Dusty to laugh and tell her she wasn’t a very fun person. It wasn’t at all surprising that that was the reaction she got this time, too.

She groaned and leaned back in her saddle. It felt like they had been flying for days, when in reality they had only been going for about a half hour or so. Shelby was ready to smash Starlight into one of the other dragons and watch as they tumbled out of the sky. But that might re-awaken her fear of heights.

Shelby had been a bit ‘on the edge’ during the time they had been flying. Her fear of heights seemed to have made a retreat, and she was pretty sure that until she saw land again, she was in the clear.

Maybe it was because all she could really see was clouds, or maybe she really had got used to gentle flying in the time she had been training, but Shelby didn’t feel scared at all.

Starlight beat her wings slightly, waking Shelby from her thoughts. The dragon had been in a bad mood all day. Shelby supposed that she wouldn’t be too pleased herself if she realised that she had to be walking all day. How hard was flying for a dragon? Did it take the same effort as walking? Maybe walking uphill? Or did it take less effort?

 _How to tell when you’re bored,_ Shelby mused, _listen to your thoughts for a while and see if they’re wondering about the amount of effort it takes for a dragon to fly._

“INTO THE GREAT BEYOND!”

She was once again forcefully shaken from her train of thought, this time by Dusty Robinson screaming in her ear.

“Good Thor!” she exclaimed, sitting up.

“No, no, it’s just me,” said Dusty. He was currently dangling upside down from Nightscales. The dog he’d brought, a black and white terrier called Paws, was looking down from his saddlebag, barking at his Master, “I thought you looked bored.”

“Really? What gave it away?” Shelby asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Well, it was in part because of the tragic sighs and in part because you look like you’re falling asleep,” he said.

“How long is it until we get there?” Endre interrupted them.

“Still 8 hours,” Fishlegs said almost cheerfully. Shelby guessed the rest of the group had been asking this question a lot.

_What else did I miss?_

“You’re so antisocial, Shelby,” Dusty said suddenly.

“Did you come over to annoy me or insult me?” she said by way of answer.

“Both,” he said.

“Brilliant,” Shelby said, “that’s just what I need.”

Dusty chuckled and shook his head, reminding Shelby rather annoyingly of her mother.

He swung himself back onto Nightscales with the parting words, “I’m going to go talk to someone who knows what a conversation is.”

Shelby stared after him. She felt Starlight hum beneath her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped at her dragon.

Starlight did a very disturbing impression of a shrug.

“Oh, you think I’m antisocial too?” Shelby questioned.

Starlight beat her wings a little too hard, causing Shelby to hiss and grab hold of the front of the saddle.

After she’d straightened her sitting position and made sure the saddlebags were still intact, she muttered, “oh, good. I’m being scolded by a dragon, now. What is the world coming to?”

She laid back as comfortably as she could and closed her eyes in the vague hope of sleep.

…

Dragon’s edge looked almost overwhelmingly peaceful from the sky. Shelby had often flown Starlight around Berk and thought that if her home island saw less battles than the Edge, then the Edge would probably have more statues and defences and watchtowers. There were a couple of watchtowers, but Shelby didn’t think it looked overly defensible.

It had a few small mountains and beautiful hills.

And a rag-tag village that looked as if it had been thrown together overnight.

“Those buildings don’t look very sturdy,” Gunilla said as if reading Shelby’s mind.

“They may not look sturdy, but we have Gronkle iron covers that we can put up in the event of an attack,” Fishlegs explained.

“But what if the attack is sudden?” Gunilla pressed.

Fishlegs shrugged, “then we defend the island with our dragons.

Gunilla huffed, “I think that will be my first ‘personal project’,” she declared.

“I might bring some sheep up,” announced Kensley, “I don’t know how you get by with only meagre supplies from Berk.”

Fishlegs interrupted the conversation, “we’ll land in the centre, by Hiccup’s hut. Oh. Shelby and Endre, I haven’t told Hiccup about either of your dragons. In fact, I haven’t told any of the Riders about which dragons people got.”

He accelerated Meatlug, leaving Shelby staring after him in confusion and dismay.

They landed smoothly, although it took Batsnapper a few seconds longer to land due to the narrowness of the walkway. This caused Gunilla to huff in annoyance and Endre to look slightly amused.

“I’ll get Hiccup,” Fishlegs said.

Once he’d disappeared, Gunilla said, “I can already tell I’m going to hate this place. How am I going to go long periods of time with a dragon that can hardly land properly?”

“You’ll be fine,” Endre assured her, “I figured it out.”

“For once, you have it better than me,” Gunilla pointed out.

“You have a pet dragon that shoots acid. Stop complaining,” her brother snapped.

Gunilla glared at him, but didn’t say anything.

Suddenly they heard Fishlegs’ voice again, “there’s seven of them.”

“Seven?” It took a moment to place his voice, but once she did Shelby found herself feeling stupid. It was Hiccup Haddock, the leader of the Dragon Riders. Hiccup started to say something else, but the he interrupted himself, “is that a Nightfury?”

“No, it’s a yak,” Shelby said sarcastically. She inwardly winced, wondering if she would be punished.

Hiccup barely noticed her. He was too busy turning to Fishlegs, “ _Fishlegs!_ Why wasn’t I sent a Terror Mail?”

“If you remember, Hiccup, you told me that I didn’t need to tell you exactly what dragons there were,” Fishlegs said slightly slyly.

Hiccup sighed and seemed to have to force himself to look over the other dragons. His gaze fell on Mist, “a Silver Phantom? Where did you go to find these dragons?”

“Dragon Island,” said Fishlegs.

Hiccup nodded, still looking a little shocked. He turned to the humans who were with the dragons, “welcome to Dragon’s Edge,” he greeted.

“Hi!” Kensley said excitedly. Well, there was one benefit of having Kensley around. It meant that he would do all the interacting with other people for you, “I’m Kensley!”

This seemed to trigger other people to start introducing themselves. Endre went next, “I’m Endre.”

“Gunilla,” Gunilla put her hand up, looking bored.

“I’m Dusty.”

“Osmond.”

“Hillevi.”

Shelby felt his eyes shift to her, “my name’s Shelby,” she said.

Hiccup nodded, looking between the faces as if trying to memorise them, “do all of the dragons have names?”

“This is Boulder,” Kensley, once again, went first.

“The idiot blind Changewing is Batsnapper,” said Gunilla.

“Hillevi and I called our dragon SkyFire,” Osmond said, “I ride Fire and Hillevi rides Sky.”

Endre pointed over his shoulder at Mist, “that’s Mist.”

“The Nightfury’s called Starlight,” Shelby said.

“And the Nadder’s called Nightscales,” finished Dusty.

“I’ve never seen one of that colour before,” mused Hiccup, “nor a Zippleback which is half and half. These are some very unique dragons,” Hiccup seemed to miss Gunilla’s mutter of, ‘we’re quite a unique group of Riders, too,’ “Maybe we could go back there and see what else we could find.”

Fishlegs shuffled his feet awkwardly, “there was an incident on Dragon Island that you should know about, actually. Your father isn’t best pleased.”

“What happened?” Hiccup demanded.

Before Fishlegs could answer, Gunilla jumped in, “there were some feral dragons on the island. A few people died and a girl got badly injured.”

“Oh, gods,” Hiccup said, “and my father still let you take the new Riders?”

“We sort of had to sneak around him a bit,” when Hiccup looked incredulous, Fishlegs squeaked, “he knew we were still training but he didn’t acknowledge us at all, and we tried not to give him a reason to.”

“ _Shelby’s_ father doesn’t know she’s here,” Dusty said helpfully.

Hiccup sighed, “Fishlegs, you must have broken about fifty rules.”

“You’re always going against your father,” Fishlegs pointed out.

“True,” Hiccup admitted.

“When are we going to meet the other Riders,” Kensley demanded.

“Soon,” Hiccup said, “it’s almost dinner time. We always eat together anyway.”

“We’re not going to have to sleep outside, are we?” Gunilla asked.

“You can sleep in the clubhouse,” decided Hiccup.

“For now, why don’t you take your dragons down to the stables? There should be enough room for them,” suggested Fishlegs.

The Riders-in-training nodded. Once they had been given directions, they mounted their dragons and flew off.

“So,” Hillevi began, “did anyone else actually listen to those directions, or…?”

Kensley looked at her in horror, “I thought you guys were memorising them.”

The conversation was interrupted by Gunilla, “is it so hard for you guys to use your brains? The stables are down here.”

Muttering about how idiotic her fellow Riders were, she gave Batsnapper a nudge and he dived down.

“Gunilla?” Hillevi said nervously, “maybe one of us should go first.”

“I’m not going to be the idiot Rider who always needs-” Gunilla was cut off when, despite her best attempts at guiding him, Batsnapper’s wing caught on the edge of the stable door and she flew off of him, “-help.”

Kensley snorted, “is it just me or was that hilarious?”

Hillevi sighed disapprovingly, “grow up, Kensley. She might be seriously injured.”

“I’m not!” Gunilla announced.

“She could have been,” Hillevi argued.

Gunilla’s fellow Riders made a point of landing before entering the stables to avoid making the same mistake again. Although Shelby supposed it would be difficult to have the same accident when your dragon isn’t blind. Nevertheless, no-one said anything as they found pens to put their dragons in.

“So, we have to walk back, now?” Kensley asked dubiously.

“Guess so,” Osmond shrugged.

It took them several attempts to find the correct route back to the clubhouse, but they eventually managed it (after making several wrong turns and an almost visit to what must be the Twins’ house).

“I’m so hungry,” Hillevi complained.

Osmond frowned at her, “Hillevi, you ate all the snacks on the flight here. How can you still be hungry?”

“I like to eat over-the-top amounts of food, ok?” Hillevi snapped.

Kensley, never one to miss out on a joke opportunity, said, “so that’s why you’re fat?”

Hillevi gasped indignantly and hit him in the face.

“I’ll take that as a no,” he decided as she walked away.

Shelby rolled her eyes at him. As she passed him, she said, “you just couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?”

“Nope,” he declared, grinning at her.

Shelby and Kensley were the last to enter the clubhouse. It was a fairly small room, with a large table which must have been for the original Riders. There was another one which Shelby supposed was for them. Dusty, Endre, Gunilla, Hillevi and Osmond were already sitting down.

“Should we be sitting down yet?” Endre asked nervously.

Shelby snorted, “well, they’re not exactly going to rip our heads off, are they?”

“Yeah, Endre,” said Gunilla, “you should stop seeing the original Riders as gods. We’re equal to them now.”

“No you’re not,” the few people who were standing whirled around at the voice, while the people at the table twisted to get a better look. It was Snotlout, the Monstrous Nightmare- riding Dragon Rider, “you’re not equal to us yet. Don’t go thinking you’re full Riders just because you live on the Edge.”

“I hate to admit it, but he has a point,” a girl Shelby recognised as Astrid walked through the door next, “you guys are in training until we tell you otherwise. You won’t be going on missions until _every_ Rider says you’re ready,” Astrid narrowed her eyes bossily.

Several people gulped, but most of the group nodded.

“Well, we can’t call you the Auxiliary team,” Hiccup added as he entered.

“What about the B-team?” Snotlout suggested.

“I have an idea,” Fishlegs said, “what about we call you the Apprentices?”

Astrid nodded, “that’s a good idea. We did call this the Plan Apprentices, after all.”

“Then the Apprentices it is,” the leader of the Dragon Riders decided.

Gunilla stood up, “What if we don’t want to be called the Apprentices?” she challenged.

Astrid shrugged, “then you go home.”

Gunilla sat back down, fuming, but didn’t say anything else.

As if to diffuse the tension, Kensley said nervously, “sooooo. What are we doing tomorrow?”

“We were going to test some new armour we made for Toothless,” said Hiccup.

“Can we help?” Dusty asked eagerly.

Hiccup shrugged, “Fishlegs is still in charge of your training,” he turned to the other Rider.

“I am?” Fishlegs asked. Everyone stared at him dubiously. He shrugged, “I guess we could practice some flying manoeuvres. Maybe we could help fire fake arrows at Toothless with the others.”

“Awesome!” Osmond exclaimed.

“Ah-ah-ah. No-one does that better than Snotlout,” said Snotlout.

“I could fire arrows better than you,” Gunilla challenged.

Snotlout laughed as if that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard in his life, “no you couldn’t, kid.”

Gunilla scowled, “don’t call me ‘kid’” she warned.

“I can call you whatever I want, since technically I’m your superior,” he retorted.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

“Where are those two mutton-heads?” Astrid wondered.

Snotlout shrugged, “they probably got stuck trying to think of another way to make the food taste disgusting.”

Shelby assumed they were talking about the Twins, since they were the only other people she knew to be on the Edge who weren’t in the room.

As if on cue, the two Thorstons suddenly appeared in the back doorway, carrying some trays of food. Tuffnut announced, “dinner is served!” before placing a bowl of food on the other table. Ruffnut sauntered over to the Apprentices and put another one down.

“Why hello,” the Rider said. She turned to her brother, “hey, Tuff, it’s the mini Riders!”

“We’re not the mini Riders!” protested Gunilla, positively steaming with rage.

“Yes,” Dusty agreed, somewhat more quietly, “we prefer to be called the Apprentices.”

“ _I_ don’t,” Gunilla pointed out. Everyone ignored her.

“Apprentices, mini Riders,” Tuffnut said, “it doesn’t matter, because you’re not going to last long, anyway.”

Hiccup called his friend over to the other table, “Tuffnut! That’s not very welcoming.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be,” shrugged Tuffnut.

“Seriously, though. Why should they get to just walk on in here and join the Dragon Riders?” Ruffnut asked.

Astrid rolled her eyes, “we’ve been through this before, Ruff, we can’t defeat the Dragon Hunters with only five dragons with Riders.”

“One of them has two Riders,” Tuffnut pointed out.

“Not to mention,” added Fishlegs, ignoring the twin, “that the Hunters now have a Dragon Rider on their side.”

Astrid looked uncomfortable for some reason, but she just nodded.

“Sit down, everyone,” ordered Hiccup.

Reluctantly, the Dragon Riders obeyed.

Fishlegs broke the silence, “right. I think introductions are in order.”

Kensley was, once again, the one who went first, “My name’s Kensley Crosbie. My dragon is a Gronkle called Boulder.”

“Oh, great. Another slow lazy Gronkle on the team,” Snotlout muttered.

To his credit, Kensley said nothing as he sat down.

Osmond stood up next, “my name’s Osmond Bambrick. I ride the left head of a Zippleback called Fire.”

Hillevi took her cue, “my name is Hillevi Hjalmar and I ride the right head. Sky. We refer to them as SkyFire.”

“Yes!” Tuffnut said triumphantly, “Ruff, we have more Zippleback riders. We must work quickly to teach them the ways of the true destruction.”

Hillevi snorted, “I’m not very good at destruction, but if you like.”

Dusty stood next, “I’m Dusty Robinson. My dragon is a Deadly Nadder called Nightscales.”

Astrid nodded, “good. Remind me to give you some extra training on the best ways to use the spineshots.”

Dusty nodded nervously.

Gunilla stood up, “really? I have to introduce myself _again?_ Ok. My name’s Gunilla McCotter. My dragon is a Changewing called Batsnapper.”

There was a murmur of surprise at the type of dragon. Astrid spoke up, “was it sensible to take the Changewing from it’s pack.”

“Batsnapper was cast out of his pack,” Endre told them all helpfully.

“And for good reason,” Gunilla said, “he’s blind.”

The Riders looked at each other in surprise, but nobody else had any comments.

Shelby decided to go next, “My name is Shelby Reenberg. My dragon’s called Starlight.”

She hoped no-one would ask about the species, but that was proved too high a request when Snotlout asked, “are you going to tell us what type of dragon Starlight is, then?”

“She’s a Nightfury,” Shelby said without hesitation.

The people who didn’t know gasped in surprise. Shelby ducked her head despite herself, and was relieved when Endre stood.

“And I’m Endre McCotter. Gunilla’s brother,” he shot Gunilla an unfathomable look, “my dragon is a Silver Phantom.”

“A Silver Phantom, a Nightfury, and a blind Changewing,” Astrid exclaimed, “Fishlegs, did you go to some remote, undiscovered island to get those three, by any chance?”

“No,” he responded, “they were found on Dragon Island.”

“How are we not talking about the fact that Fishface here thought it was a good idea to accept a Rider with a _blind_ dragon into our team?” Snotlout cried.

“He did worse than that,” said Gunilla, “he let a Dragon Rider with a blind dragon _as well as_ a blind Dragon Rider.”

Endre stood angrily. He was luckily saved from having to respond by Fishlegs, “Endre, sit down,” their ‘mentor’ ordered, “I am confident in both Endre and Batsnapper’s abilities to keep up with the other Riders. They did tremendously well in training, and if I didn’t already know they were blind, I wouldn’t have noticed.”

Shelby half expected Gunilla to stand up again and argue against Fishlegs. But to her relief, the conversation lapsed into silence.

She sighed. It was going to be a long few years.

If she survived that far…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.  
> The next update may or may not be a few days late. It depends on how quickly I get it done (of course). It's going to be the first part of the first episode I'm going to be doing, Snow Way Out.


	10. Prove it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup and the Riders don't let the Apprentices go on the mission. The Apprentices (excluding Shelby, of course) are not pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon.  
> We're into the episodes!!! I've been waiting for this since I started this story.  
> The next update really will take over a week because I'm going away on holiday and won't have wifi.

Shelby leaned against the catapult, bored out of her mind. They were currently waiting for Hiccup and Toothless to fly near them so that they could shoot at them with the fake missiles. Some idiot had decided that Shelby would be the best option to man the catapult. Shelby wasn’t even going to try. She was more likely to pollute the ocean with one of the enormous bags of paint she was to be firing than hit Hiccup with them.

“Hey, Shelby, get ready,” the order came from Gunilla.

“Who put you in charge?” Shelby yelped back.

Gunilla had been trying very hard to become the ‘leader’ of the apprentice Dragon Riders. It was both hilarious and annoying.

“I happen to be the most experienced person with catapults. My father built them for a living,” Gunilla said.

“Surely you _and_ Endre would be the most experienced, then?” Dusty pointed out lazily.

Gunilla huffed, looking amusingly like a chicken with ruffled feathers, “you can’t shoot a catapult blind. Even Endre knows that.”

Everyone looked at the boy in question, who shrugged, “can’t say I can argue. I’ve never been good with ranged weaponry. But then, neither has Shelby.”

There were a few sniggers. Shelby glared at him, but found that she didn’t have a retort.

Gunilla brought the attention back to herself, “that’s beside the point,” she announced, “the point is, I should be in charge.”

“What, because you’re good at firing catapults?” Dusty challenged.

“No!” Gunilla spluttered, “I’m-”

“Be quiet,” snapped Snotlout. He glared around at them, “if I had known you guys would more annoying than the twins, I would have argued harder against you being trained as Dragon Riders.”

Gunilla narrowed her eyes, but said nothing.

“There they are!” Tuffnut cried suddenly.

“Fire!” ordered Snotlout.

Hiccup and Toothless dodged the first few rounds of missiles easily, even the arrows. But Shelby could see that the armour was coming off.

“Shelby!” Gunilla cried irritably, “why aren’t you firing?”

Shelby sighed and triggered the catapult, already knowing that it wasn’t going to hit it’s mark. The Dragon Rider didn’t even have to dodge, as the bag of paint flew past at least three metres away from them.

“Oh, for goodness sake,” Gunilla exclaimed.

She shoved Shelby out of the way, hard. Shelby yelped as she landed on the floor. Gunilla hauled the spare bag onto the machine, and began to draw it back again. With frightening speed, she took aim and fired.

The paint splattered all over Hiccup and Toothless. The two stumbled in the air a little, before righting themselves and turning to look at who had fired the shot.

Hiccup sighed, “well done, Gunilla,” he praised.

“Hey, I was just about to get you,” Snotlout protested.

“Of course you were,” Ruffnut said.

Snotlout glared at her.

…

They were all still arguing as they walked towards the clubhouse. Snotlout was saying something about how no armour could possibly be ‘Snotlout-proof’, and Hiccup and Fishlegs were discussing how they could improve the design. Most of the Apprentices were still arguing about whether or not Gunilla was fit to be their leader, and, as usual, Shelby and Dusty were arguing about Shelby’s social skills.

“But it won’t make it _Snotlout-proof_ , nothing can,” Snotlout was saying, “honestly, you guys are really lucky I’m on your side.

Suddenly, Astrid came out from the stables on Stormfly and knocked him over, “oh, you are? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.”

“Astrid!” Hiccup exclaimed, “back from Berk so soon?”

The Rider shook her head seriously, “I never got there. I ran into Trader Johann, who had some interesting news. Hiccup, we need to talk.”

Astrid led them into the clubhouse, which Shelby noticed seemed to be the place where the Riders did most of their decision-making.

“Johann flagged me down and told me that he saw Ryker, Heather, and the Dragon Riders at the Northern Markets buying all the cold weather gear they could find,” she announced, pacing.

Shelby stood awkwardly with the other Apprentices. She wondered if she was the only one thinking that maybe they should sneak away.

“Why would they buy winter clothing in the summer?” wondered Kensley.

“He _llo_. That’s when you get the best prices,” Ruffnut answered.

Tuffnut jumped in to explain, “Ruffnut is an excellent shopper. She brought both of our outfits two for the price of one.”

Ruffnut nodded smugly.

Snotlout said, “no-one’s surprised by that.”

“What would the Dragon Hunters want with winter gear at this time of year?” Hiccup asked, “did Johann say anything else?”

Astrid shrugged, “they needed it quickly, and they were looking for something rare. Like a bone, or a claw.”

To Shelby’s surprise, Hiccup looked horrified, “or… maybe a tooth?”

Fishlegs’ eyes widened in realisation, “of course. The Snow Wraith. The Dragon Hunters need cold-weather gear to get a Snow Wraith tooth.”

“The Dragon Eye used to belong to them,” Hiccup agreed, “they must know that they need a tooth to unlock it.”

“Is anyone going to explain this to us?” Osmond asked. He was ignored.

“Who cares?” Snotlout wanted to know, “all it means, is that they aren’t coming after us.”

“Which means they’ll be coming for us next,” Hiccup continued, in a tone which suggested he was choosing to ignore the fact that he was directly contradicting what Snotlout was saying.

“What are you guys talking about?” Gunilla demanded. She was ignored.

“Hiccup, you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking,” Astrid said.

Ruffnut chuckled, “oh, that is definitely his thinking face.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Hiccup told them, “get a good night’s sleep, gang. We head out for Glacier Island in the morning.”

“Glacier island?” Kensley asked, “I’ve always wanted to go there!”

But Hiccup shook his head, “not the Apprentices. We can’t risk taking untrained Riders into danger.”

“But we’re not untrained Riders,” Gunilla protested.

“Yeah! We’ve been training for this,” Dusty said.

“Hiccup-” Fishlegs started to say.

“No! They’ve been training for a few weeks. Fishlegs, you’ve already messed up on Dragon Island. The matter isn’t up for discussion. The Apprentices are _not coming_ ,” and with that, Hiccup exited the room. The Twins, Snotlout and Astrid followed, him. Shelby could hear the Twins asking how Fishlegs, ‘messed up on Dragon Island’?

Fishlegs remained behind when the other Riders left, “he’s right, you know,” he assured them, although it sounded like he was also trying to convince himself, “you guys are getting good, but not good enough to go up against a Snow Wraith.”

“But we need experience,” Gunilla said, a note of pleading in her voice.

“Why don’t you spend the next few days designing and building your huts? I’ve picked out some spots if you want to take a look at them,” Fishlegs suggested.

Shelby wasn’t going to say anything because she didn’t want to make it more likely that she’d end up on the mission, but she had literally no idea how to build a hut.

Gunilla glared at Fishlegs, but didn’t continue to argue. The Apprentices began to make their way down to the stables where they stored their sleeping stuff. As they walked, Dusty came up behind Shelby, “this is so annoying,” he said.

Personally, Shelby was quite relieved that they wouldn’t be risking their lives tomorrow, but she nodded anyway.

“We were getting really good in training,” Gunilla agreed.

“I wouldn’t say Shelby was getting really good,” said Kensley.

Shelby glared at him, but didn’t have the energy to say anything.

“Ok, everyone _except Shelby_ was getting really good,” Gunilla said, “and Shelby can just- I don’t know- carry our stuff or something.”

“I certainly can’t,” Shelby said indignantly.

“Yeah,” Kensley agreed, “you’d probably drop it.”

“Stop teasing Shelby,” Hillevi said before Shelby could say anything, “we’re supposed to be a team. A team is only as strong as its weakest player.”

“Well then, I hereby kick Shelby out of the Dragon Riders,” Gunilla said.

Shelby folded her arms, “A- we’re not the Dragon Riders, we’re the Apprentices,” at this Gunilla huffed and tossed her hair, “and B- nobody gave you the power to do that.”

“I think we all agree that Shelby is only dragging us down,” Gunilla argued.

“If that’s true, then you’re the one who’s dragging us down,” Shelby answered, “earlier, you literally couldn’t land your dragon.”

“Exactly,” Dusty agreed, “now, let’s stop this talk of kicking people out. I’m tired.”

“Ugh. We have to walk all the way back,” Hillevi complained.

“We could sleep in the stables,” Osmond suggested.

“We could, but it would very much confuse the Dragon Riders when we get back. They might worry,” Endre pointed out.

“Who cares?” asked Gunilla, “I’m mad at all of them. I say we have a right to make them worry.”

“Well, it might take them longer to let us go on missions if we act like irresponsible children,” said Endre.

Gunilla scowled, “yes because where we choose to sleep affects our worth as Dragon Riders.”

“It’s not about that,” Osmond argued, “purposely disregarding their instructions and feelings is a sign of disrespect. Hiccup won’t want disrespectful Riders on his team.”

“He already has disrespectful Dragon Riders on his team. Look at how Snotlout and the Twins speak to him!” Dusty pointed out.

Hillevi sighed, “you guys can do what you want. I’m going back to the clubhouse.”

“You’re making a huge deal out of this,” Gunilla taunted as Hillevi, Osmond and Endre picked up their bags and began to walk out of the stables.

Shelby looked between the two groups and sighed, then picked up her bag as well and followed the others up to the clubhouse.

…

Shelby was woken by the smell of eggs cooking. She looked up to see Hillevi in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Good morning,” Hillevi greeted when Shelby wandered over to the kitchen.

“What’re you doing?” Shelby wondered.

Hillevi shrugged and shifted one of the eggs in the pan, “I asked Fishlegs about what the eating arrangements are here. Apparently, the Riders take turns cooking dinner, but breakfast is just ‘whoever gets to the kitchen first’. I figured I’d make a good impression by making everyone breakfast.”

“Aren’t the Riders going on their mission?” Shelby asked.

“They’ve got to have breakfast,” Hillevi pointed out.

“True,” Shelby admitted, “want any help?”

“Sure. Do you mind putting some butter on that bread?” Hillevi pointed over to the other end of the kitchen.

“I warn you. I’m as bad at buttering bread as I am at flying a dragon,” Shelby warned.

“It’s fine. I can guarantee that my brother’s cooked worse,” the other Apprentice assured her.

Shelby chuckled and began on her task. She had never been a great cook, but she had to admit that Hillevi had had a good idea about the breakfast thing.

“Do you cook often?” Hillevi asked, as if to diffuse a bit of the tension.

“A little,” Shelby responded truthfully, “my skills have always kind of stopped at toast, though.”

Hillevi laughed, “I love cooking. It’s sort of like my thing, since I’m not good with weapons.”

“You’re better than me. Although, uh, that’s not very hard,” Shelby said.

“I heard about what happened with your father. Is that why you never practised?” Hillevi asked.

The knife Shelby was using slipped at the reminder, and cut one of her fingers. She hissed at the sting of pain and put her finger in her mouth. Then she answered Hillevi’s question, “pretty much. I can’t really go near any weapons without remembering.”

“That must be hard,” Hillevi said.

 _Really?_ Shelby would have said the word out loud, but she was just starting to get along with the other Rider, and she didn’t want to ruin it, “yeah. I get used to it.”

 _Well, I obviously didn’t, since I just cut myself the moment you mentioned it. But go ahead, carry on asking questions about the most traumatising moment of my life,_ again she bit back the speech.

“Mmmm. What smells so good?” she was stopped from having to say anything when Snotlout walked into the room.

“Breakfast,” Hillevi explained.

“Wait,” Snotlout looked like he was trembling from realisation, “having mini Dragon Riders on the island means that the mini Dragon Riders make food for us?”

Shelby scowled and wanted to respond, but Hillevi beat her to it, “while we’re all still determined to make a good impression, yes.”

“And how long’s that going to last?” Snotlout demanded, “what if I was the most amazing role model ever? Would I get extra food?”

Shelby cut in before Hillevi could accidentally put them on food-making duty for the next 15 years, “no. You get as much food as we make. And also, you’re a terrible role model. It’s Hiccup, Fishlegs and Astrid we’re trying to impress.”

“It’s early in the morning,” Snotlout said, almost to himself, “you clearly don’t know what you’re saying.”

Shelby turned back to the bread she was buttering with a sigh.

“Is anyone on breakfast?” Fishlegs called as he walked into the room.

Endre sat up, “careful. I have sensitive ears,” he complained.

“The mini Riders are doing it,” Snotlout told his friend.

“We are not ‘mini Riders’,” protested Shelby. She was ignored.

“Oh, that’s good,” Fishlegs said. He looked around, “where are Gunilla, Dusty and Kensley?”

“They slept in the stables,” Endre answered. Shelby wondered if she should tell Fishlegs the reason why that was, but she decided against it. The other Apprentices already thought she wasn’t a real part of the team.

She and Hillevi quickly finished making breakfast and gave it to the Riders, who were grateful, but, to Hillivi’s obvious disappointment, not overly ecstatic.

After the Riders had left, Shelby and the others hung around the clubhouse for a bit in awkward silence. Shelby was just about to suggest they go check out the spots Fishlegs had chosen for their huts when Endre suddenly said, “shouldn’t the others be back by now?”

“What? The Riders? They won’t have even reached the island,” Osmond answered.

“No,” Endre said scornfully, “Gunilla, Dusty and Kensley.”

“Who cares?” Shelby asked, “all I know is that we aren’t being bossed around by Gunilla.”

“Surely they would have come up for breakfast,” Endre pointed out.

Hilleve spoke up, “they probably went training on their dragons. Maybe they had food in their bags.”

It was the logical explanation, but Shelby had a sneaking suspicion that the others might have disregarded orders in a slightly more severe way than sleeping in the wrong place.

“Guys, what if they followed the Riders?” Osmond asked, voicing Shelby’s thoughts.

As if this was his cue, Endre leaped up and began to jog down to the stables. If Shelby hadn’t been worried, she would have wondered at his ability to memorise the route and go on it without falling over the edges due to his blindness.

Hillevi and Osmond got up as well and began to walk in the direction Endre had gone, if at a more leisurely pace.

Shelby sighed and followed them.

When they reached the stables, they saw a panicked Endre at the stables, checking all the pens to see which dragons were missing.

“They probably just went training,” Hillevi assured him.

“Why would they take their saddle-bags training?” the blind boy demanded.

Osmond’s eyes widened slightly, “that means they must have planned this in advance!”

“And they didn’t tell us!” Hillevi exclaimed, “I would have gone with them.”

“No you wouldn’t,” Osmond said, causing her to frown, “because SkyFire needs two Riders and I wouldn’t have gone.”

“That really doesn’t matter,” Endre protested, “we need to go after them and see if we can turn them around,” he raced over to Mist and mounted her, “come on!”

Hillevi and Osmond looked at each other, then entered SkyFire’s pen and also got on their dragon.

“I-I’ll stay here,” Shelby suggested, panic settling in her, “and guard the edge.”

“No, Shelby. You’re coming with us, because we might need extra firepower from a Nightfury if we end up in a sticky situation,” Endre said. She glanced at him and saw that there was no point arguing. She sullenly went over to Starlight and hauled herself onto the dragon’s back.

There was no time to steel herself. No time to talk to the others and come up with a plan. Mist and SkyFire took off, quickly followed by Starlight. Shelby glanced back at the edge as they began to flap away. She felt the familiar dizziness and her stomach rose to her throat.

They were going after their friends who were going after a Snow Wraith, and Shelby had a feeling it wasn’t going to be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Please leave a comment. I won't see it until next week but I will reply eventually.


	11. The Double Agent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby, Endre, Hillevi and Osmond arrive on Glacier Island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I still don't own How To Train Your Dragon. If I did, Shelby and the Apprentices would be canon characters.
> 
> Seriously, though. Surely it's a little unrealistic that Hiccup managed to train a dragon and no one on Berk wanted to become a Dragon Rider as well apart from the teenagers. I get that it 'isn't the Viking way', but surely there are Vikings who at least ride dragons for fun. Why didn't the Dragon Riders start teaching lots of new Riders other than the Auxiliary team?
> 
> Oh, wait. Hang on. In the episode, 'the Flight Stuff' Hiccup wouldn't let Gustav keep his dragon. The Dragon Riders obviously want all the power to themselves. *Dragon Rider conspiracy.*
> 
> Anyway...

They had been flying for hours. In that time, Shelby had realised that not only had all three of them forgotten the saddlebags containing the food, but also that she was wearing a tunic and trousers while going after a dragon on a frozen island.

They would have made far better time without Hillevi and Osmond. Starlight and Mist were both incredibly fast dragons, Mist especially so. Zipplebacks were about average, and were already having trouble keeping up with Endre’s pace. Starlight was slightly slower than the Silver Phantom, and she flapped irritably at a speed much faster than what either Shelby or Starlight were comfortable with.

“There it is!” Endre exclaimed, pointing at an island that was just coming into view in the distance.

Shelby shuddered. If they hadn’t run into the others by now, it meant that Gunilla, Dusty and Kensley had most likely already made it to their destination. Hopefully they hadn’t run into the Snow Wraith yet, because that would mean not only that her friends were dead, but also that she and Starlight had to fly all the way back without a rest on the island.

The three dragons picked up speed as they headed towards the frozen wasteland. Shelby could feel the tension in the air as if it was a physical object. She huddled closer to Starlight as the wind began to get colder, and wished, not for the first and probably not for the last time, that she had thought to bring the saddlebags.

“Should we… land?” Hillevi said uncertainly.

“We should circle the island a few times, and see if we can spot the others,” Endre told them.

Shelby shook her head, “we need to be more subtle. If the Riders spot us, I have a feeling they won’t be pleased.”

Before Endre could respond, a soft voice called from behind them, “and why won’t the Riders be pleased if they spot you?”

Shelby twisted in her saddle. Behind them was a dark-haired girl riding a Razorwhip. Shelby instantly clocked who she was. It was Heather, the traitor who had sided with her brother, Dagur, and the Dragon Hunters.

Osmond seemed to realise this, too, “Heather,” he hissed.

The girl didn’t seem too intimidated, “why are four children riding dragons on Glacier Island?” she wondered.

“We’re not children! We’re Apprentice Riders!” Endre protested.

“You mean you’re aligned with the Dragon Riders?”

The words were hardly out of Heather’s mouth before Hillevi and Osmond suddenly twisted SkyFire around and shot a fireball at her. She dodged easily, but she had to duck under the missile Endre and Mist sent her way.

“A Silver Phantom,” she breathed, “deadly.”

She didn’t wait for any kind of response before ordering her dragon- Windshear- to fire a spray of spines in Mist’s direction. This caused him to pull desperately out of the way, and slip backwards in the saddle. While he was recovering, Heather jumped from Windshear’s back and pushed him off, “in the right hands,” she finished menacingly.

While Mist had no choice but to dive after her falling Rider, Shelby decided to have a shot at the other Rider- if she could even be counted as a Dragon Rider after what she did. She tapped Starlight on the back of the head, and the Nightfury began to charge up a plasma blast. Unfortunately, the tell-tale noise of the fire charging up gave it away, and Heather easily avoided the blast.

“Try not to be too predictable,” Heather advised as Windshear shot some spines at Shelby.

Starlight managed to get out of the way of most of them, but one found it’s mark in her side, near Shelby’s foot, and the dragon awkwardly began to wobble away from the battle.

Shelby flung her arms around Starlight’s neck as their pathetic trajectory began to take them towards the ground.

 _This is the second time I’ve fallen out of the sky on an injured dragon,_ she thought in annoyance.

Despite her terror, she had kind of got used to this type of situation and she managed to keep some semblance of rational thinking. She reached down to pull the spine out of her dragon.

Starlight roared in pain, but, upon realising that the spine was no longer in the way of her wings, managed to pull up before they crashed into the mountain. They shot upwards, almost hitting several ledges before Starlight twisted away from the cliff-face.

Finally, they were back in the air and far enough away from the mountain that Shelby no longer felt like they were going to crash. She turned to see how the battle between the Dragon Riders was going.

And saw silver reflective scales uncomfortably close as Heather reached over and tore her from Starlight’s back.

“What are you doing?” she cried. She looked down, and dizziness began to cloud her head as she realised how far away the ground was.

“Capturing someone who I think will help very much in our war against the Dragon Riders,” Heather told her. On second thoughts she added, “if only as a hostage.”

Starlight started after her, but Windshear shot a spray of spines at her, and a couple of them caught her wings. Starlight fell in an ungraceful spiral to crash-land in the snow. She cast desperate eyes around for her friends, but she caught sight of two dragons tangled in a heap on the floor and realised they must have crashed into each other. Endre, Hillevi and Osmond were staring after the Dragon Rider as if they couldn’t believe it. There was no-one coming to her rescue.

She was captured.

…

Heather flew Shelby to a point about halfway up the mountain. She was unceremoniously dropped in the snow, and Windshear landed next to her.

She looked around. She could see no Dragon Hunters. Had Heather brought her here to kill her?

She wasn’t going to go down without a fight. She pulled out the small dagger she carried in her tunic and ran at Heather with a very un-Shelby-like battle cry. Heather dodged out of the way. Shelby swung the knife at her again.

“Listen, I’m not going to hurt you,” Heather held her hands out pacifyingly.

Shelby didn’t believe that for a minute. Pushing back her discomfort at using a knife, she made another attempt on the girl’s life.

Only to have the handle pulled from her grip.

“Will you just stay still?” Heather said, sounding frustrated.

Shelby fell silent. Maybe if she didn’t complain, Heather would let her live?

“Hear me out. I don’t know why Hiccup trained children to ride dragons and sent them to Glacier Island, and I don’t think he’d want me to know,” Heather began, “but since you guys are the only ones I’ve seen, I assume the three Riders we captured earlier who had a blind Changewing, a Gronkle and a Nadder were your friends.”

“Kensley, Dusty and Gunilla?” Shelby questioned, her eyes widening.

“That _sounds_ about right,” Heather said uncertainly.

“What have you done with them?” Shelby demanded.

“The Dragon Hunters captured them when they attacked the ships. They’re being kept on the other side of the island,” Heather told her.

Shelby was confused, “I thought you were a traitor,” she said uncertainly, the prospect of her friends’ capture pushed to the back of her mind for the moment.

“You can’t tell Hiccup, but I joined Dagur to get closer to him so I could get revenge on him for killing my family,” Heather explained.

Shelby narrowed her eyes. That made sense, but she’d been told-

“Astrid will explain everything. But you need to rescue your friends quickly. Ryker’s planning on using them as hostages to get the Riders’ help in capturing the Snow Wraith,” Heather said.

“What should I tell Endre, Hillevi and Osmond?”

“I’ll drop you near them. Just tell them you managed to escape, and I’ll leave,” Heather suggested, “tell them what I told you about your friends, but make it seem like you got it some other way.”

Shelby nodded. Heather climbed onto Windshear and beckoned Shelby to join her. As they began the journey, Heather started talking, “so… you have a Nightfury?”

“Yup,” Shelby said, “she rescued me from Changewings.”

Heather nodded. Shelby could sense she was curious. Finally, she asked, “what’s the deal with these extra Riders?”

Shelby narrowed her eyes again. She would check out what Heather said about her friends’ capture, but she wasn’t going to tell her any information that could be used against the Riders, “I don’t think I’m allowed to tell you that,” she said.

“I never caught your name,” Heather seemed to get the message and didn’t press the matter.

“Shelby Reenberg,” said Shelby.

“Nice to meet you, Shelby. Now, remember what I said about not being predictable,” Heather advised.

Shelby hardly had any chance to react before she pushed off of Windshear.

“Good luck!” Heather called as she left. Shelby didn’t get a chance to respond, because she was putting too much effort into landing on her feet. It was only a drop of about three metres, but it jarred her legs and she tumbled to the ground.

“Uhhh,” she groaned, hauling herself to her feet. She began to walk in the direction she thought her friends were, wondering how in Thor’s name she was going to explain this.

…

“So, you managed to walk the whole way back?” Hillevi asked sceptically.

“Yeah,” the cover story Shelby had come up with was… flawed to say the least. In her defence, she hadn’t had much time and Heather hadn’t given her too many details. All she had was a vague idea of where the Hunters were and the knowledge that, yes, they had Kensley, Dusty, and Gunilla, and yes, the three were in trouble.

“What are they planning to do with them?” Endre asked worriedly.

“I don’t know,” Shelby said, having no way of divulging that information without revealing where exactly she had gotten it. Hastily, she added, “but I would say the Dragon Hunters were planning on using them as hostages to get the Dragon Riders to capture the Snow Wraith for them.”

“Oh no,” Osmond exclaimed, “if the Dragon Riders see them, they’ll know they were on the island.”

“Really?” Hillevi asked, nudging him.

“And what’s worse, they’ll probably figure out that we were on the island, too,” Endre finished.

“Maybe we should head back. That way, they’ll have no way of knowing anything,” Shelby said uncomfortably.

“No! If the Hunters get the chance to use the other against the Riders, then they could get their hands on a Snow Wraith tooth, which I gather from the way the Dragon Riders acted wasn’t a good thing. This is bigger than just us. And Kensley, Dusty and Gunilla could get hurt,” Hillevi argued.

“And they might torture them,” Endre shuddered.

“Those idiots. We wouldn’t be in this situation if they had used their brains,” Osmond hissed.

“I find myself doubting that they even have brains to use,” Shelby responded.

“Well, SkyFire’s out of commission,” Hillevi pointed to the downed Zippleback, “and Starlight and Mist have seen better days. If we’re going to pull this off, we’re going to have to think of a really cunning plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this took longer than expected. There were a few... complications.
> 
> This is a short chapter. I wanted to post it today so that I have all of those lovely comments to look forward to tomorrow. Because there will be some this time...
> 
> Right?
> 
> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Please please please please leave a comment. I have gotten ONE COMMENT on ao3 for this story. I'm not usually bothered by what people think when I'm posting stories (not that I've posted many), but even I have to admit this is a little discouraging. Even if there's criticism. If you don't like the story then please help me improve.


	12. Hillevi's cunning plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hillevi and Shelby infiltrate the Hunter base to free the other Apprentices. It doesn't go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! This is one of the quickest updates I've done on this story.   
> Disclaimer: Was anyone actually under the impression that I owned How To Train Your Dragon? If you were, you were wrong.

“ _This_ was your cunning plan?” Shelby hissed to Hillevi as they made their way into the camp.

“I’d like to see _you_ come up with something better,” the other Rider snapped back.

The clothes were far too big for Shelby. She hoped none of the Hunters would notice that her trousers were so rolled up that they would have been shorts for the unlucky Hunter she had stolen them from.

She shuddered involuntarily. De-clothing a Hunter was not an experience she wanted to repeat anytime soon. It was firmly on her list of worst experiences, along with ‘air combat’ and ‘crash-landing on a dragon’.

She wished furiously that Osmond hadn’t been so stubbornly against being on the ‘infiltration team’. He had insisted that he would be far better as ‘dragon back up’, and had all but stolen Starlight from Shelby.

They hadn’t _quite_ had a chance of properly scouting out the Hunter base before starting the mission. It was one thing to go undetected with two healthy dragons. It was quite another to do it on dragons with spines sticking out of every surface.

They also hadn’t _quite_ had a chance to properly _plan out_ their mission. Hillevi and Endre had both been adamant that if the Hunters managed to show the captured Apprentices to the Riders, they could have their chances of joining the Dragon Riders taken away. To be honest, after experiencing her first air fight, Shelby wasn’t sure she’d be all that disappointed if that was the case.

As of now, their rather hastily prepared disguises hadn’t been tested on any Hunter guards, since they had managed to sneak past the others out of sight. Now that they were approaching where most of the men were concentrated, she had a feeling that wasn’t going to last.

As if reading her thoughts, Hillevi hissed, “act natural. Remember, we’re supposed to be here.”

 _Well, we’re_ not _, and I can think of more reasons than just the one Hillevi’s thinking of._

They passed the first few Hunters without issue. Shelby was quite surprised by that, considering that most of the Hunters seemed to be huge, bulky men, and they were… well… not. A few people glanced their way, but they kept their heads high. The people just shrugged and went back to what they were doing.

“I think those are the docks,” Shelby nodded in the direction.

Hillevi gave an almost imperceptible nod in return. By a unanimous agreement, the two girls turned towards them.

“Where are you two going?” a voice demanded from behind them

No-one else responded, so Shelby and Hillevi began to turn back.

There was a huge man wearing Hunter armour looking right at them.

“U-us?” Shelby tried to make her voice sound deep, but it came out a little squeaky.

“Yes, you,” the Hunter clarified, “Ryker needs everyone up there to catch the Snow Wraith.”

Shelby opened her mouth to make up some excuse about forgetting something, but before she could Hillevi said, “of course, sir. We thought we saw something and wanted to check it out.

The Hunter narrowed his eyes, but must have been satisfied because he turned and walked towards another Hunter.

“What are you doing?” Shelby demanded, turning to Hillevi.

“What were you going to say? That you’d forgotten your dragonroot arrows? Did you seriously think he’d buy that?” Hillevi snapped.

“Now we’re never going to find them,” Shelby wailed.

Suddenly, Hillevi’s eyes focused on something behind her, “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

Shelby turned around to see what the other Apprentice meant. She gasped, partly in horror, partly in relief.

There were three cages behind her. In the first, Batsnapper was cowering in confusion. In the second was Nightscales, who was writhing in terror and rage. And in the third was Boulder, with her ears pressed against her head, her eyes filled with fear.

Shelby saw Dusty, Kensley and Gunilla being led by a couple of Hunter guards. They were tied up, and none of them spoke. Shelby guessed that they had been rebellious, but they had been forced to shut up. She narrowed her eyes in anger. What right did these men have to capture three young, pretty much defenceless teenagers with hardly any experience?

Hillive tapped her on the shoulder, “try not to stare at them. The Hunters could get suspicious.”

Shelby wanted to retort that she wasn’t very good with shock, but before she could, there was a loud cry of, “we’re heading for the mountain!”

She shot a glance in the direction the voice had come in, to see a man who could only be Ryker shouting at Heather.

As she watched, he leaned towards the Rider and said menacingly, “do you have a problem with that?”

Heather glared at him, eyes narrowed, “of course not. After you.”

Ryker looked at her suspiciously, then yelled the order, “move out!”

At once, the Hunters, as well as Hillevi, began to walk towards the distant mountain peak. Shelby had no choice but to follow them.

Cardiovascular endurance had never been her strong point, so Shelby was puffing by the end of the first five minutes. She desperately needed a rest, but she couldn’t stop without the Hunters getting suspicious.

Hillevi slowed her pace down so that she was walking alongside her fellow Apprentice, “stop walking like that,” she advised.

Shelby stared at her in disbelief, “like what?” she demanded.

“Like you’re about to fall over. I don’t think the Hunters take weakness that well,” Hillevi pointed out.

 _What am I doing here?_ Shelby wondered.

She remembered when she was little, her friend came up with the theory that there were alternate versions of every person for every choice they made. Shelby wondered if there was some other Shelby somewhere, sitting comfortably at home with barely an idea of what the Dragon Hunters were. Had that Shelby gone against her parents, or did that Shelby have different parents?

She shook her head angrily. She needed to concentrate. How were she and Hillevi supposed to rescue the other Apprentices if they were constantly in view of the Hunters? She wondered if Hillevi had an idea.

When she voiced her question to the other girl in an urgent whisper, Hillevi shook her head and said, “I’m afraid I’m as out of ideas as you are,” in a sombre voice.

 _Great, so_ now _what are we supposed to do? Grab the cages and make a run for it?_ Shelby avoided saying the thought out loud. She didn’t think it was all that productive.

“We need a distraction,” Hillevi’s voice was lowered.

“If you tell me that your next ‘cunning plan’ is having me shoot someone while singing a love ballad, I am going to punch you,” Shelby threatened.

“Does that seem like a plan I’d come up with?” Hillevi asked, sounding vaguely hurt.

“This whole thing was your idea,” Shelby said crossly, “if anyone’s going to be singing a love ballad, it’s going to be you.”

Hillevi snorted, “no one is going to be singing a love ballad. Now, give me time to think properly.”

Shelby would have pointed out how ridiculous the two of them would seem to an outsider who heard their situation described. They had gone with the classic ‘dress up as one of the enemies’, accidently joined the enemies, and were now trying to rescue their friends from their enemies without alerting their other friends to their presence.

 _This is just one big mess,_ Shelby thought, _I am going to_ kill _those three later._

They carried on walking further up the mountain, onto a spiralling path that Shelby had a feeling led to something not good. At one point, Ryker knelt down and inspected something on the ground. He stood up and narrowed his eyes, “Dragon Riders.”

Shelby let out an involuntary shudder. She wondered if the Riders would be able to recognise her while she was in her disguise. Surely, they would be too focused on the Snow Wraith to pay attention to one particularly skinny Dragon Hunter. _Surely._

But if they saw Gunilla, Dusty, and Kensley, it would be game over.

She turned to Hillevi, “not to rush you, but maybe we should work on getting them out _before_ the Hunters reach their destination,” she hissed.

Hillevi glared at her, “I’m _trying,”_ she responded. If they hadn’t been walking, Shelby was sure the both of them would be pacing back and forth like two idiots.

“That’s it!” Hillevi raised her head, almost stopping short.

Shelby ducked her head as the Hunters’ gazes turned to them, some confused, some horribly suspicious.

When most of them had put their focus back onto walking, Shelby snapped, “be careful.”

Hillevi seemed barely to notice her mistake, “we’ve got to get ourselves put on guard duty.”

Shelby stared at her in disbelief, “yes, because they’ll let _two people_ guard the cages all by themselves.”

“It’s the best I’ve got,” Hillevi said defensively.

“Ok, so we get put on guard duty, wait for a moment when _absolutely no-one_ is looking even in the _general direction_ of the cages, then free our friends.”

“Do you have any better ideas?” her friend demanded.

Shelby sighed, “no,” she admitted.

“Then listen,” Hillevi ordered, “we wait until the Hunters have stopped and most of them are watching what’s going on with the Dragon Riders, whether it’s a battle or a conversation. We offer that we’ll guard the cages, and we’ll free the dragons first so that we have them to defend us if the Hunters see.”

“Hillevi, if the Hunters managed to defeat the dragons once, they can quite easily do it again,” said Shelby.

“We’ll have to count on the fact that the Dragon Riders will see the chaos and take advantage of it.”

“I think you’re forgetting something.”

“What?” Hillevi asked irritably.

“If we cause a distraction as big as breaking out prisoners, there is no way the Dragon Riders won’t see us,” Shelby pointed out.

Hillevi looked frustrated, “look at our situation, Shelby. I think we’re just going to have to let them see us. Right now, our lives are at risk. I’d rather be kicked out of the Dragon Riders than die, wouldn’t you?”

“Mmm,” agreed Shelby, relieved that at least one of her fellow Apprentices was seeing sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.  
> On the last chapter, I actually got some criticism. They pointed out that the dragons weren't being developed very well as characters, and looking back on my previous chapters, they were absolutely right. I've also been writing as if the dragons can understand what the Vikings were saying, which is obviously not the case.  
> I've also had a couple of people on fanfiction.net say that I haven't put anything on Hiccup's reaction yet. I am going to do a short chapter on that after I've finished this episode. I'm not very good at keeping characters who I didn't make up in character (which is why I've mostly been focusing on the Apprentices so far), so it will probably not be very good. But at least it will be an attempt.  
> Please leave a comment. I got two comments on the last chapter, and look how quickly I updated. It really does help me.


	13. Well, that didn't work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby and Hillevi's plan fails miserably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, it's another very short chapter which I finished in the middle of the night.  
> Disclaimer- I still don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

The Hunters had the Dragon Riders cornered in a cave about halfway up the mountain. The Riders were around the corner, out of range of the arrows, but Shelby had a horrible feeling that Ryker had a plan far more cunning than Hillevi’s.

Ryker had gone into the cave to call Hiccup out to ‘talk’. He had, in fact, placed an archer amongst the crevasses of the cave wall with an arrow ready to shoot Hiccup.

“We have to do something,” Hillevi hissed as Hiccup unknowingly stepped out.

“What?” Shelby demanded, “in case you haven’t noticed, we’re not in the best position either.”

“We have to sneak up on that Hunter and distract him,” Hillevi seemed not to have heard her.

Shelby looked at the scene. The Hunter seemed to be waiting for some signal before he fired. For what, she didn’t know.

“What are they doing? I thought they wanted to use the Apprentices as hostages to get the Riders to help capture the Snow Wraith,” Shelby wondered.

Hillevi narrowed her eyes, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her, “they want Hiccup dead. Maybe they want to force the other Riders to surrender.”

Shelby scratched her chin thoughtfully, “the Riders _have_ been an annoyance to them for a long time.”

But something didn’t feel right. Shelby didn’t know much, but she did know that the Snow Wraith tooth could open the Dragon Eye, which was very important to the Hunters. Wait- the Dragon Eye?

“They want the Dragon Eye,” Hillevi came to the realisation moments before Shelby said it out loud, “they’re going to kill Hiccup, use the other Riders to take down the Snow Wraith, and then force them to give up the Dragon Eye using the other Apprentices as hostages. We _have_ to stop them.”

Hillevi began to inch towards the spot where the archer was hidden, making it look like she just wanted a better view. The Hunters seemed to be more interested in what was going on in the cave to look at her, but if she got too close-

“Hillevi!” Shelby whisper shouted. She looked around for Heather. Surely the Dragon Riders’ spy had a plan to save Hiccup. She pulled her friend back by the shoulder.

Hillevi turned to her, “they’re going to kill Hiccup, Shelby.”

“We’ve got to get the others out of there,” Shelby said desperately, “I don’t know what will happen if the Hunters get the Dragon Eye, but the Riders wouldn’t put so much effort into protecting it if it was good.”

Hillevi looked between the soon-to-be murder scene and their friends, “you’re right,” she agreed. But she didn’t walk straight over to the cages, “Shelby, you get the others out of those cages. I’ll deal with Hiccup. Wait for the Hunters to be distracted.”

Before Shelby could argue, Hillevi had started towards the archer. Shelby looked around to see if anyone had noticed. The Hunters were starting to pay attention to her. Before they had a chance to react, Hillevi broke into a run. She shoved the Hunter over from behind and yelled, “IT’S A TRAP!”

She could hear both the Riders and Hunters reacting with confusion from inside of the cave. More Hunters rushed towards the scene, and Shelby was worried someone would order her to join the battle.

No-one did. Shelby took a deep breath and went in the direction of the cages that held the dragons. She inspected the lock. She could see the other Apprentices staring in confusion.

“Shelby?” Kensley asked in disbelief.

She ignored him.

 _Rescue the dragons first. Hillevi said to rescue the dragons first. Why was that again?_ Her brain was spinning with adrenalin, and it took a moment to answer the question.

Well, a moment, as well as someone grabbing her by the back of the shirt and pulling her away from the cage she was trying to open.

 _Oh, yeah,_ she thought stupidly, _so that they could provide protection if I got attacked._

“More mini Riders,” the Hunter said in an amused voice.

Shelby was getting sick of people calling them mini Riders. But before she had a chance to say so, the Hunter shoved her to the ground and bound her wrists with rope.

But as he was walking away, Dusty stuck out a leg and tripped him over, sending him crashing to the ground, in range of a sharp kick to the head from Kensley. He didn’t get up, making Shelby realise he was unconscious.

“Have you got a knife?” Gunilla asked.

Shelby shook her head. Before she could explain that it had been taken by Heather, Dusty said, “I have.”

He used it to slash through his own bonds, Shelby watching the cave tensely. She could tell the fight was over. Someone could see them any minute now.

“Got it!” Dusty exclaimed happily, holding up his free wrists. He turned to Kensley and was about to cut through his, but Gunilla warned, “no! Get the dragons first and they can carry us.”

Dusty seemed to understand. He turned to the cage that held Batsnapper and began to pick the lock. Shelby nearly smacked herself in the forehead at the realisation that she hadn’t thought of that.

“They’re coming out,” Kensley warned. Shelby saw figures emerging from the wall of smoke that was the cave.

Just as he said it, Batsnapper was finally free. The blind dragon surged out of the cave and grabbed Gunilla, dragging her with him into the sky.

_Of course Dusty rescued the only dragon which is too scared to pick up anyone but his Rider. His abusive, hateful Rider._

Gunilla yelled, “go back, Batsnapper! Get the others,” but apparently her dragon was deaf as well as blind, because he just kept flying away.

Dusty turned to Nightscales’ cage in desperation, but before he could, an arrow zinged too close for comfort between his outstretched hand and the lock, and he pulled it back with a hiss.

Ryker walked out of the smoke, a captured Hillevi in tow. To the Hunters who were firing arrows at the retreating Dragon Rider he ordered, “leave it. We still have the others.”

“Wow, amazing rescue,” Dusty said dryly.

“And you made an _excellent choice_ on which dragon to free, Dusty,” Shelby complimented.

“Well, at least one of us is safe,” Kensley said optimistically.

“Yeah,” agreed Shelby sarcastically, “we freed one person and got two people caught. Why don’t we just continue in this fashion until we’re all caught, and then we can all be tortured by Dragon Hunters together?”

“Put her with the others,” Ryker shoved Hillevi towards Dusty, Shelby and Kensley.

Soon all four of them were bound and being led, against their will, to wherever the Hunters’ destination was this time.

Honestly, Shelby was getting rather annoyed at how often no-one asked her opinion before making her walk long distances. She made a mental note to go for more walks to build up her strength.

Suddenly, Ryker bent down and felt the ground.

“Here,” the Dragon Hunter growled.

The men walking along suddenly halted. They began to set up some defences. Shelby could see archers readying their arrows, and a large net launcher being unfolded and put into position.

She looked around dubiously at the, apparently normal, spot on the mountain. She turned slightly to the other three Apprentices, “do you think they know something we don’t?”

“They seem to be preparing for something,” Kensley said observantly.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Shelby said.

“Just saying,” he exclaimed hurriedly.

Ryker shot a glance their way, “no talking,” he ordered.

“Why?” Dusty asked, “are you worried we’ll ruin your plan by having a little chat?”

Ryker’s lip curled slightly, and he took a step towards them, “just remember that we only need one of you,” he warned.

Shelby would have hissed at Dusty to shut up, but she remembered the exact order just in time.

 _I wonder which one of us he would decide to keep alive,_ she mused, _Hillevi? She hasn’t caused any trouble. Would they keep the dragons alive?_

Shelby told herself to stop thinking about such things. They were all going to get out of this alive, she thought determinedly.

A rumbling noise broke her from her thoughts. It seemed to be coming from underground, in the direction of the mountain. Not that it could _not_ be in the direction of the mountain, because they were standing on the mountain-

Suddenly, the ground began to crumble beneath them. Shelby and a couple of the others yelped as they struggled to get their footing.

“What’s happening?” Dusty wondered, a slight edge of fear to his voice.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s not good,” Kenley, once again, spoke the obvious.

His point was proven when a spot on the ground finally broke out and out burst three enormous white dragons. They began to fly towards the freedom of the sky, but, at Ryker’s order, the archers fired their dragonroot arrows. Shelby watched in horror as all three of the magnificent creatures were knocked out of the sky in nets.

“We have to do something,” Dusty hissed.

“What?” Shelby demanded.

“I don’t know!” he responded.

Shelby was going to point out what a stupid thing that was to say, but she was cut off when a Hunter shoved her from behind, “get moving.”

She realised that the dragons had now been dragged into the clearing before Ryker and were being tied up. Luckily, they couldn’t put all of them in cages as two of the cages were taken by the Apprentices’ dragons.

This meant that only one Snow Wraith was locked in a cage, with the other two being dragged in nets. Nevertheless, it restrained them just as well and the Hunters began to drag them, as well as the hostages, down the mountain towards the ships.

She could feel Dusty struggling furiously beside her, but the Hunters didn’t seem to notice. They had their prize.

As well as four people who they could trade for the most important object in the Dragon Rider’s possession.

And one of them was Shelby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> This episode has gone on longer than I expected. I think there'll be one more chapter on 'Snow way out', then I'll get writing that chapter on Hiccup and Toothless' reaction to Starlight. It won't be long or good, but I'll try my best.


	14. Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gunilla lies. No-one believes her.  
> Hiccup gives the Apprentices a lecture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer- I don't own How To Train Your Dragon.
> 
> Sorry for the slightly later than usual update. I've been working on another story (which is now posted. If you like Warrior Cats, then it's called One Final Chance and it's one of those Time Travel fics).

The walk to the ships seemed shorter than the walk up to the mountain. It could have been because it was downhill, but it could also have been because Shelby was numb with fear. What was going to happen to her? Would she be tortured for information before being traded with the Dragon Riders? Were the Dragon Riders going to be any kinder to her once they realised that she had disobeyed orders and followed her fellow Apprentices to Glacier Island? Was she going to die?

 _Don’t be so negative,_ the small argument she and Dusty had had just before the incident at Dragon Island now seemed a lifetime ago. Was it really only a month since she had stood in the arena and heard her name called out? Since she had seen Starlight for the first time?

Her time in the Dragon Riders had been short, but Shelby couldn’t honestly say she regretted her decision to pass the test. What would her life have been without it? A long, drawn out time of being nothing but a disappointment to her parents? Of never truly feeling like she was enough?

She wasn’t nearly as good as the other Apprentices, but there was always room to learn, right?

If she got out of this alive, which was seeming less and less likely with every passing second, she vowed to herself that she would put one hundred percent of her effort into her training. She _would_ conquer her fear of heights.

And if it costed the Dragon Riders their Dragon Eye, she would make up for it by fighting every battle they threw at her without questioning her orders once.

 _That’s all very well,_ she realised, _but how many times have I thought similar thoughts? And how many times have I completely failed to continue the goal after a couple of days?_

 _That’s the least of my worries,_ she shook herself back into reality, _I have to figure out a way to escape the Dragon Hunters._

She felt a slight tap on her shoulder, and turned her head to see that the culprit was Dusty. She tilted her head questioningly and his gaze focused on something behind her.

She turned her gaze subtly to follow his, and her eyes widened in surprise.

Hovering nearby was an unmistakable group of dragons.

She could see the Dragon Riders, as well as Endre riding Mist, Osmond riding between SkyFire’s two heads and Gunilla riding Batsnapper.

“They went to the Dragon Riders to get help,” Kensley whispered in awe.

Shelby nodded mutely. She also realised that that meant Endre, Osmond and Gunilla had taken the brunt of the telling off so that they could save them.

They probably weren’t doing it for her, but Shelby was grateful anyway.

Dusty tapped her again, “pretend you haven’t seen them,” he warned.

Shelby nodded and began to focus on the captured dragons again. Both the cages and the nets were being moved slowly towards the ships. She hoped the Riders would hurry.

Almost the moment the thought entered her head, Shelby flinched involuntarily as a huge explosion shook the mountain.

It was the Twins and Osmond! They had blasted an ice sheet in the hopes that it would cause an avalanche and take out the Hunters’ defences.

Seizing the opportunity, Dusty lurched forward out of their guard’s grip. He didn’t have a knife, but he quickly solved that problem by running over to Nightscales’ cage and holding his wrists up to the dragon’s tail. Once he was free, he made quick work of the lock and leaped onto his dragons back. Luckily, he didn’t do anything stupid, like stay to fight. Instead he ordered Nightscales to cut the rope tying up Shelby, Hillevi and Kensley, who managed to get Boulder free.

Almost overwhelmed by how quickly things had turned for the better, Shelby accepted Kensley’s help climbing onto Boulder, and the two dragons flew away with their Riders. Hillevi, who was on Nightscales, pointed Endre out and they flew towards him.

“Where’s Starlight?” Shelby demanded almost the moment they were within hearing range.

“She’s back there,” Endre pointed in a direction. With perfect timing, a plasma blast hit one of the Hunter ships. It was clearly from Starlight.

Kensley landed Boulder nearby, and Shelby hurried towards where her dragon was flying.

“Starlight!” she cried, half climbing, half falling off of Boulder. The Nightfury’s head turned in her direction, and Starlight bounded over to greet her Rider.

“I missed you,” Shelby whispered, almost surprised to realise that was true. She climbed onto the back of her dragon, which was now becoming so familiar she felt she had been sitting there her whole life, and they took off.

Starlight and Shelby seemed to agree at once that they didn’t want to engage in any air battles right this second. Shelby began to steer the Nightfury out to sea and away from Glacier Island. Hopefully the other Riders and Apprentices would follow.

She could hear Kensley on Boulder behind her, and knew he’d come to the same decision. Looking back at the island, she caught sight of a black dot that could only be Dusty and Nightscales.

She slowed slightly to allow Kensley to catch up.

“That went better than expected,” Kensley remarked as they flew.

Shelby nodded in agreement, but didn’t say anything.

“Do you think we’re cowards for flying away this early?” he made another attempt at discussion.

“Maybe,” she answered, “but I’ve had enough of air combat for at least a week, and I doubt the Riders want us there anyway.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, a little half-heartedly, “we’ll only get in the way.”

Shelby took a deep breath, remembering that she hadn’t yet had an opportunity to yell at anybody about the reason they had needed to go the island.

“Why did you guys go after the Riders?” she demanded, “you could have gotten someone _killed!_ And _what_ would you have done if Hillevi, Endre, Osmond and I hadn’t shown up? The Riders would have had no idea that anyone was captured, and Ryker might have been able to use you against them. How would you have felt if the Dragon Hunters had got hold of the Dragon Eye because of your _complete_ _idiocy?”_

Kensley had been silent while he was waiting for her to finish, but now he spoke up, “if the Riders had trusted us to come with them on the mission, we wouldn’t have been captured. They would have been there to guard our backs.”

“They have better things to do than act as your bodyguards,” Shelby retorted. She knew that he would be hearing this all over again from the Riders, but she was so angry she didn’t care. All the fear she had felt as a result of her three ‘friends’ was bubbling up the surface as rage, “this was an important high-stakes mission, and as much as you want to prove yourself, you’re not _trained!”_

Kensley sighed, “how about we talk about this when everyone is on the Edge and the Riders can have their say?”

…

The other Apprentices arrived one at a time. Dusty came first, followed by Hillevi and Osmond. Endre and Gunilla were the last, and they landed on the Edge halfway through a heated argument. Shelby guessed it had something to do with the topic of her conversation with Kensley.

The Riders came in a group about 15 minutes later to see all of the Apprentices ready for the inevitable conversation in the clubhouse. No-one had wanted to miss it in case their point of view was not properly considered. Even Shelby had found that she cared about whether the Riders were mad at her or not.

The loud chorus of, “it wasn’t my idea!” when Hiccup and the Riders entered the room made it clear that the conversation was going to be long, hard, and probably include some measure of violence.

“Alright, alright,” said Hiccup, “one at a time. Can someone please explain to me what you guys were doing on Glacier Island despite my direct orders to remain on Dragon’s Edge?”

Everyone looked at each other, daring someone to start the conversation. To absolutely no-one’s surprise, it was Gunilla who broke the silence. Also to absolutely no-one’s surprise, she didn’t exactly tell the entire truth either, “Dusty, Kensley and I decided to sleep in the stables last night, as you know,” she began, her voice soft and submissive, “when we awoke, we went up to the clubhouse to have breakfast, and we found the other four Apprentices and their dragons gone. We knew they must have headed over to Glacier Island following you, and we chased after them in the hopes of turning them around.”

Shelby, Endre, Hillevi and Osmond were shooting outraged looks at each other. Surely the Dragon Riders wouldn’t punish the wrong group.

Hillevi opened her mouth to say something, but Shelby shook her head. They needed to be patient.

Gunilla barely looked at the people she was blaming, “the Hunters launched a sneak attack on us while we were looking for them, and we were captured. I promise you, Hiccup, that we were only trying to help our friends.”

Endre instantly sensed when his sister was finished, “that’s not true. It was Gunilla, Dusty and Kensley who followed you and got captured. We followed them and were trying to rescue them. Hillevi and Shelby dressed up as Dragon Hunters-”

The Riders nodded as if they had realised that the two were indeed wearing Hunter clothes.

“-and tried to get them out. We managed to free Gunilla and Batsnapper, but Batsnapper left without picking anyone else up. The Hunters captured them to trade with you for- well- we presume the Dragon Eye.”

The Riders nodded.

Fishlegs looked nervously around at his friends, “Gunilla, Kensley and Dusty were not at breakfast,” he clarified.

“We slept in a little,” said Gunilla

“And Gunilla spoke out the most when we told them they couldn’t come,” Fishlegs recalled.

Snotlout put in, “Hillevi and Shelby made breakfast this morning. They mentioned it was to impress us, and acted disappointed when we weren’t over the moon about it.”

Hiccup folded his arms, “you can’t give me two stories. Which one’s true?”

“Ours,” Gunilla and Endre said at the exact same time.

Kensley put his hand up as if asking for permission to speak, “actually- uh- it’s Gunilla who’s lying.”

Everyone stared at him, even the four whose story he was supporting.

“I wouldn’t lie about this, and if I did, I would say the opposite to what I am saying now,” he said, “Gunilla persuaded Dusty and I to go with her on the mission, and the others realised we were gone and went after us. We weren’t expecting it to turn out this badly. I’m sorry,” he bowed his head before Hiccup, looking genuinely ashamed.

Everyone looked at Hiccup to see how he would react. The leader of the Dragon Riders began to pace.

“You guys have no idea of what you just risked on that mission,” he began, “you acted against direct orders and rushed into battle. Your capture could easily have lost us the Dragon Eye.”

Everyone tensed. Was Hiccup going to kick them out of the Dragon Riders?

“This cannot go unpunished,” he warned, “from now on, _all_ Apprentices will be training every day-”

“All Apprentices?” Hillevi cried indignantly, “we didn’t do anything apart from try to stop the others!”

Hiccup went on as if she hadn’t spoken, “-sometimes with the help of the Riders or each other and sometimes on your own. When we go on missions, you will be given tasks such as building new structures on the island or cleaning out the clubhouse, stables or huts. You will not go on any missions, raids, or attacks until we deem you ready. If you disobey orders again, you will be heading back to Berk.”

Shelby had heard about Hiccup’s famous lectures. She half expected him to be finished, but he was not. He stopped pacing and stood in front of the Apprentices, who were standing in a line.

“You need to understand the rules out here. Being a Dragon Rider is not just being free to do whatever you want. You need to act with responsibility. We’re protecting something very important and it’s more than just the Dragon Eye. Do you understand?”

The Apprentices nodded nervously.

“Good,” Hiccup said, “now, I want you to go down to the stables. The Riders and I need to talk about something.”

Shelby noticed that the last time the riders had needed to talk about something important, the Apprentices had been allowed to join in.

 _Things are going to be different now,_ she realised as she half-listened to the other Apprentices argue about who’s fault this was, _and I’m not sure I’m going to like it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Updates might be a little slower because I've posted a second story now and I'm trying to figure out a way to keep them updating at the same time. Of course, I don't do well at planning things, so we'll see where it goes.


	15. The Measuring Tape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup's reaction, as promised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. Do you remember, a couple of chapters ago, me saying I'd do a chapter on Hiccup and Toothless' reactions to Starlight? Remember how I said it wouldn't be good?
> 
> That is correct, it is not good. I've rewritten it about eight times, which is why this update has taken a little longer than the last few. It's harder than it looks. I really did try my best to make it as long as previous chapters, but unfortunately that didn't work either, which means it's the shortest chapter in Plan: Apprentices' history. Please don't desert the story because of the monster you're about to see.
> 
> Disclaimer: I still don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

Shelby’s dragon hummed curiously as Fishlegs stretched the measuring tape over her wings. The Dragon Rider was quivering with excitement, “I can’t believe that we finally have another Nightfury to compare to Toothless!” he exclaimed.

“So you’ve said,” muttered Shelby. She was currently leaning against the wall, her mind going around in circles from boredom. What exactly was this achieving? She didn’t mind that Hiccup had given them all a day off before beginning their punishment, but this honestly wasn’t much better.

“Starlight’s a little smaller than Toothless. I’d say that it’s more from age than gender,” Fishlegs observed.

“She’s a slightly different colour. Toothless is jet-black. She’s a dark grey colour,” Hiccup noticed, “and she has silver scales scattered over the undersides of her wings. I wonder if that’s just a thing for female Nightfuries or if it’s something only a few of them have evolved to blend in with the night sky.”

Shelby sighed. She wanted to bash her head against the wall, hard. This was getting them nowhere, “guys, there is literally no way of knowing whether these things are from differences in gender or age, so could I please have my dragon back?”

Hiccup barely spared her a glance, “there’s just a few more measurements we need to take,” he assured her, “then she’s all yours.”

Toothless had been sitting nearby, and had been shooed away whenever he tried to get close. Shelby was feeling a little sympathetic towards him. This could be the first time he had seen another of his kind, and he wasn’t allowed to properly interact with her because Hiccup wanted to measure her wings.

Now the black dragon hummed loudly in response to Hiccup’s promise to Shelby. His Rider hurriedly added, “or… after Toothless has finished saying hello.”

Toothless gave a satisfied purr, and Shelby had to suppress a snort of amusement. Was it usual for Nightfuries to act this way towards their Riders? Because that interaction literally summed up her entire relationship with Starlight.

Starlight suddenly sniffed the air, and her eyes widened noticeably. She turned her head, ignoring Fishlegs’ protests, to look sideways at something. Shelby followed her gaze.

And saw Snotlout coming out of the clubhouse with a bucket of fish. Shelby shifted uncomfortably, “Starlight-” she started, beginning to move forward in case-

“Gah!” Hiccup exclaimed as Starlight barrelled past him in the direction that the food had been spotted. The dragon barely gave him a sideways glance before diving over the edge of the platform and swooping away.

Shelby made no move to charge after her dragon. She had a feeling that it wasn’t going to do much. No, Starlight was far from her reach right now, mentally and physically. She was devoted to her Rider, but food would always come first.

Shelby realised Hiccup and Fishlegs were staring at her, “Huh?”

“Aren’t you going to do something about this?” Hiccup questioned.

“Like what? Fly after her? In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have wings, so unless I want to fall-”

“Alright, alright,” Fishlegs sighed.

The three watched helplessly as Starlight bowled Snotlout over and began to scoff down the fish. When she was finished, she shot a considering look back at the platform.

 _Nope, too tired,_ must have been the thought that ran through Shelby’s dragon’s head, because she pointedly curled up and closed her eyes. A relaxed sigh escaped her mouth and her ears flattened to block out any protests that could be made by the humans.

“Well,” Hiccup said after a moment, “that’s our Nightfury measurement session over with, I suppose.”

Shelby shifted, hearing the creak of the floorboard below her feet, “I guess I’ll go get Endre.”

Shelby couldn’t say she was too surprised when, ten minutes later, she caught sight of a very angry Silver Phantom leaving the platform.

She snorted softly to herself. Measuring dragons wasn’t very fun, but watching other people attempt it certainly was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "That's it?" you cry.
> 
> "Indeed," I tell you, "My brain shorted out writing-wise this week, and neither of my stories, apart from the one with pre-written chapters, got very far. I even found myself writing a Men In Black and Warriors crossover to try to get my creativeness going again, but alas, it did not work."
> 
> Can we just accept that Hiccup's reaction to another Nightfury just isn't something I'm good at writing?
> 
> It's done now. Hiccup has reacted to the dragon. I will be back with you with another chapter in a few short days, and it may or may not involve Shelby trying to build a hut.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and please do not stop liking the story. I am not losing my motivation to write it, I just had a small case of writer's block.


	16. Shelby's Great Dragon Root Adventure: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby discovers that the Dragon Riders are very bad at picking you out a place to live for the next few years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Ok, how about a fun couple of chapters where the Apprentices try to build their huts and fail miserably? We could have Dusty be amazing at building but he keeps getting side-tracked by what everyone else is doing, Endre do some funny stuff where he tries to do everything without help, and Starlight accidently burning loads of stuff. It would be a nice, easy way of relaxing before starting the next episode. We could even have-
> 
> My brain: Giant cliffs, more angry feral Nadders, and Dragon Root. Got it.
> 
> Me: No. I was thinking more along the lines of-
> 
> My brain: Complete and total chaos?
> 
> Me: *sighs* Alright then.
> 
> I'm really sorry this chapter took so long. I remembered I had a Geography project that was supposed to take 18 hours over the summer holidays a few days ago and I've been trying to do that without completely rushing it. I also had a load of other homework I needed to do. I've had a very bad few days. Please don't kill me over how badly I messed up the 'Shelby tries to build a hut' promise I made.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon.

The promise she had made to herself when she was captured by Dragon Hunters seemed rather far away when Shelby woke up for the first day of the Apprentices’ punishment to Astrid’s call of, “Apprentices, time to get up.”

_Ugh. Forget it. I never wanted to put effort into my life, anyway._

She sat up groggily, wondering if she would rather be woken up by Dag and Lin in her own bedroom back home.

“What are we doing today?” Gunilla seemed to have made it her mission to be a complete ‘teacher’s pet’ towards the Riders in the hopes she would be forgiven. Shelby highly doubted she would be anytime soon, but she didn’t say anything in the hopes that it would distract Gunilla from her original goal of being a bossy idiot.

“ _We_ aren’t doing anything,” Astrid said cheerily as she pulled out seven pieces of paper and handed them out, “ _you,_ however, are going to be designing and starting to build your huts today.”

A few people groaned, and Gunilla said, “I would have thought you would want us to do some training.”

Astrid shrugged, “we just want our Clubhouse back. You can’t sleep in here forever.”

As Astrid chucked the paper her way, Shelby was just getting up. It managed to hit her in the face, causing her to give up on her attempt at getting out of bed. She flopped back down with a sigh.

_Even paper hates me today._

Still lying on her back, she uncrumpled the map and studied it. It didn’t give her a huge amount of information, just a small cross on a map of the Edge that she supposed represented where she was going to be living.

Astrid didn’t waste any more time talking to the Apprentices. The moment she had given out all the maps, she began to stride towards the door, “have fun!” she called. Then she was gone.

…

Shelby had never built a hut in her life, she had never _seen_ a hut built in her life, and she had no family members who had enough ties with building things to have gotten any tips over her lifetime.

She was well and truly _stuck._

And what was worse was that the spot she had been handed was not exactly one she would have picked herself. In fact, she was pretty sure that someone had picked it out with her in mind just so that she would have the most difficult time possible.

Shelby, of course, hated heights. She was pretty sure the Dragon Riders, or at least Fishlegs, knew by now that she hated heights. In fact, she was pretty sure they knew that and took that into account when choosing her a spot for a hut _right on the edge of a huge cliff._

But that problem paled in comparison to the fact that there was a cave nearby. It wouldn’t be an empty cave, no, Shelby had used up all her luck when she had remained alive for the whole of the last few weeks. The cave was inhabited by not one, not two, not even three, but by at least 10 Deadly Nadders.

The dragons weren’t particularly pleased about Shelby’s new living arrangements, either, judging by the fact that Shelby and Starlight’s first view of their new spot was instantly blocked by an angry Nadder

These dragons were usually fine, even in the wild. Actually, they were easily trained.

Apparently, that reputation didn’t quite hold up when they were guarding eggs and hatchlings.

“Well, this is just brilliant,” Shelby said to Starlight as they watched the dragons pace around the clearing- Shelby’s clearing- near the cliff.

Starlight growled lowly.

“I know,” Shelby agreed with her dragon friend, “but we can’t fight _all_ of those dragons. In fact, with my tendency to ruin everything, we couldn’t even fight one.”

Shelby had suggested to her dragon several times that they should go and get help, but Starlight continued to hover in this spot, watching the dragons with hostility in her amber eyes.

Shelby sighed, “Starlight, we can’t stay here forever. We need to go and get help,” she tried to pull her dragon around to fly towards Dragon’s Edge, but Starlight was having none of it. Shelby frowned and pulled harder.

Starlight snarled and flicked her ear up to hit her Rider in the face.

“Alright, point taken, we’ll deal with the problem alone,” Shelby held up her hands in surrender. She then added in a mutter, “and probably die. But you know, just an average day for a Dragon Rider.”

Shelby wondered faintly if the Dragon Riders had planned this, or if they were just picking spots at random without checking to see if there were any dangers. Dangers such as huge cliffs, angry mother dragons, or even-

“Starlight!” Shelby cried as Starlight suddenly broke into a dive. The grip on her saddle slipped, causing her to be thrown backwards. The handle was out of reach and she had to tangle her legs in the various straps in order to stay on Starlight’s back.

 _Why do things like this always happen to me? Why not_ anyone _else? What about Dusty? Or Gunilla? Or Kensley?_

Whatever she would have thought next was cut off as Starlight’s wings blew open and Shelby’s futile grip slipped. She would have blessed her luck that the fall wasn’t hard, but she was too busy cursing it for getting her into this mess. Her head hit the ground and she was pretty sure she blacked out for a few seconds.

 _Hmm,_ a slightly concussed Shelby thought as she lay stunned on the ground, _you know, falling out of the sky is becoming a disturbingly familiar experience to me._

_What’s that noise?_

The ringing in her ears began to slowly fade and a loud chorus of growls and snarls replaced it. It took her brain a while to place what it was.

_Dragon fight!_

“Starlight, what are you doing? You’re supposed to be getting me out of here!” she snapped as her dragon fought furiously against a blue-green Nadder with strange red head spines.

Starlight didn’t respond, so Shelby decided that her fragile human body would be better off away from the dangerous dragon fight.

“Ugh, this is ridiculous. _One day,_ that’s all I ask, one day without a near-death experience. I don’t know which of the gods hate me, but it must be one of them!” she muttered to herself as she began to jog into the woods.

Briefly she realised that she was once again running from at least one wild Nadder, but she pushed the thought out of her mind and continued to run.

Shelby yelped her dragon’s name indignantly for what must have been the hundredth time that day when the Nightfury scooped her up from behind, completely without warning, “Starlight,” she took one look at how high they were and screamed, “ahhhhhhhhh!”

Starlight dropped her in a nearby tree- which was _very high_ off of the ground as it was above that cliff Shelby was complaining about earlier- and, without pausing for breath, turned back in the direction of the cave.

“Ok, then,” Shelby did her best to shrug while hanging on to a tree for dear life, “I guess I’ll just wait here.”

Starlight dived down towards the Nadders and fired a plasma blast, before swooping away out of sight. Her Rider, still stranded in the tree, didn’t do anything but whimper in fright as her grip began to slip.

Shelby didn’t know how she did it, but she managed to shift her position so that instead of being under the branch, she was on top of it. She was still high up, and thoroughly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t as bad as falling off a cliff and dying.

She was dimly aware of the raging dragon fight that was still going on between Starlight and that group of Nadders. During a short lapse in the rain of plasma blasts, Shelby had worried that Starlight was injured. But then she had remembered that she wasn’t particularly happy with the Nightfury herself, and was just likely to injure the dragon as the Nadders were when she saw her next.

Starlight eventually disentangled herself from the battle and came flapping back- looking irritatingly pleased with herself- to grab Shelby from the branch she was sitting on and off to… Shelby honestly didn’t know anymore. She had lost control of the stupid dragon a while ago and had a suspicion that Starlight might be deaf.

“I hope you’re happy, Starlight,” she threatened, “because when I next have control of where and how I move, whatever happiness is left is going to be instantly cut short.”

Starlight didn’t make any of her usual sounds in response, adding to Shelby’s theory that her dragon was as deaf as Batsnapper was blind. Maybe the Nadders had affected her hearing. But that couldn’t be it. Starlight had been acting like a stubborn muttonhead before they had even set out for Shelby’s hut-spot.

Whatever else Shelby may have thought had to be saved for later when Starlight decided, without warning, that now would be an excellent moment to put into practise a difficult manoeuvre that Shelby hadn’t mastered even in training. She flung Shelby high into the air so that her rider landed on her back and sped off without waiting for Shelby to grab the handles.

“Starlight? Starlight, you can’t just fly off _with me._ Can’t you do this in your own time?” Shelby hardly had enough time to realise they were diving towards the Nadder-infested cave before they were _actually_ diving towards the Nadder-infested cave.

“STARLIGHT!” she howled. She wondered if this was some kind of odd time-warp. Was Starlight going to keep chucking her around for the rest of the day?

Thankfully she seemed to have learned something from the first time, as she didn’t instantly go flying off when Starlight swooped up from the dive after releasing her plasma-blast. She pressed herself to the dragon’s back less to increase Starlight’s agility and more to wrap her arms around her Nightfury’s neck so that she didn’t go flying backwards off of the saddle at about a million miles an hour.

As much as she felt like patting herself on the back for not getting herself a concussion and another near-death situation that time, Shelby wasn’t all that keen on repeating the experience.

She finally managed to haul the handles hard enough to get her dragon’s attention. Starlight looked up at her irritably, but Shelby continued glowering at her.

Eventually Starlight seemed to get the message because she lowered her head in what could only be shame and began to flap in the direction of the clubhouse. Shelby sighed in relief and allowed her grip, which was extremely tight, to loosen slightly.

…

“Hello?” Shelby called when she entered the clubhouse. There was no answer, which she thought was a little odd. Had the Dragon Riders gone out on another mission? They hadn’t mentioned it when Astrid had sent them here. She was about to shrug and head out again to look elsewhere when she heard voices.

Shelby rolled her eyes when she realised it was the Twins. They were speaking too fast for her to tell exactly what they were saying, but the sound was coming from the kitchen.

She poked her head in the room to see Ruffnut and Tuffnut hunched over a large bowl containing an evil-looking green liquid. The smell almost made Shelby dart out of the room to the opposite side of the island, but she realised that these two may be the only Riders she would be able to find.

She took a deep breath, trying to use her mouth rather than her nose, and stepped so that she was fully in the room.

Ruffnut was the first to turn around, “oh, it’s one of the Mini Riders.”

“Poor, innocent creature,” Tuffnut said.

“I’m standing right here, you know,” Shelby growled.

“That’s the point,” Ruffnut shrugged.

Tuffnut turned back to the bowel and gave it a stir, causing the smell to become even more unbearable. Shelby may have asked what it was, but she didn’t really want to know. He lifted the spoon to his lips and gave it a good sniff, “so, Shelly, was it?”

“Shelby, actually.”

“Hm,” he sounded thoroughly uninterested, “what brings you here on this fine morning?”

Shelby had almost forgotten in her effort to not breathe, “I wanted to talk about the location you chose for my hut,” she told them.

“Is that so?” Ruffnut clarified.

“Yeah. I can’t think of any other reason I would want to speak to you two,” Shelby said.

Ruffnut acted as if she had not spoken, “are you the one we gave the giant cliff or the unfriendly Nadders?”

Shelby bristled. So, the Dragon Riders _had_ known how unsuitable the location was, then?

“Both,” she responded.

“Then what’s the problem?” Ruffnut asked airily, “you got yourself a pack of pet Nadders and a highly defensible spot on the edge of a cliff.”

Shelby stepped forward furiously, “the problem is, _Ruffnut,_ that I _almost died_ because my dragon wanted to attack those Nadders. She threw me off of her back, picked me up again, threw me into a tree on the edge of the cliff, and then left me there for five minutes while she nearly killed half the Nadder hatchlings.”

“Well,” said Tuffnut, “there is _one_ other thing we put at your location.”

“What?” Shelby demanded.

The Twins looked at each other, smirking. Shelby didn’t get much out of them after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Ok, this is going to be the first part of a two, possibly three chapter series.. I decided to write this instead of the next episode because I'm pretty sure there's a rather large time-gap between Snow Way Out and Edge of Disaster. I just thought it would be fun to have a little story which is set before Shelby really gets used to the Edge.
> 
> After this, I'm going straight onto Edge of Disaster. No more procrastinating, I promise.
> 
> I'm back to school tomorrow :( so the updates might not be very fast from now on. I am terrible at updating stories regularly during the school term.


	17. Shelby's Great Dragon Root Adventure: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby has another moment of 'I'm going to be a brave, normal Dragon Rider.' It does not go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry about the super late update. Turns out, school is even worse than I remember. When you've just spent five hours writing stuff at a desk, then another hour doing more writing at a desk because the teachers don't know the meaning of 'build the homework up slowly', you don't then want to spend another few hours sitting at a desk writing 2,000 words. So, because I have terrible self-motivation, I just didn't.
> 
> I'll try and put the next chapter out a little bit quicker.

Shelby stormed out of the Clubhouse, muttering about how much she hated herself for making the decision to join the Dragon Riders. It was obviously not the first time and certainly wouldn't be the last time she acted in this fashion.

From the muttered conversation she had overheard as she left the Twins (honestly, those two seemed to _want_ her to know their plans), Shelby had deduced that the two of them had gotten hold of the maps for where the huts were to be built. Since they were 'servants of Loki', as they put it, they had drawn out a load of new maps and set up a lot of very dangerous locations for the Apprentices to conquer.

She didn't know where the other Apprentices had been told their huts were, but to be honest, she didn't really care. Let those idiots figure it out for themselves, she figured. She needed to head back to the cave of Nadders and put into practice a stupid idea that had begun to form in her head during her conversation with the Twins.

It was actually Ruffnut who came up with it.

 _'You have a whole pack of pet Nadders and a highly defensible spot on the edge of a cliff',_ the Dragon Rider had said. Shelby wasn't very enthusiastic about living on the edge of a cliff, but the Nadder part she could work with. She was smart enough to figure out that she would stand a higher chance of not dying if she could get these Nadders to guard her along with their young. That way, if anyone ever attacked the Edge, which they definitely would at some point, Shelby had a small army of bodyguards.

She would like to see the Dragon Hunters try to get past a whole nest of Deadly Nadders, after all.

Starlight was not nearly as reluctant to go towards the battle as she had been to go away from it. Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly where Shelby was headed.

During the disaster which was the last few days, Shelby had had little to no time to figure out where everything on the Edge was, which meant that it took her the best part of fifteen minutes to round up enough fish and chicken to do her task. Starlight was now carrying two bags of fish and chicken, which together almost smelled worse than whatever it was that the twins had been doing.

She didn't really have much of a plan. The only thing she had managed to figure out so far was that it would be best not to bring Starlight along. The thought of being dumped in another tree with only her questionable ability to catch herself to save her was not a pleasant one.

She ordered Starlight to land a safe distance from the Nadders and then told her to wait.

It was then that she truly realised what a terrible idea this was. She was going into a dragon nest armed only with some fish and a little bit of chicken, hoping that the dragons would trust her. If any of the other Apprentices found out about this, they would wonder if she had been switched with a different Shelby at some point. Maybe she had.

It was quite a short walk to the spot where she had seen the Nadders, but the muscles Shelby had overused the day before were screaming by the time she had reached her destination.

_Well, here goes nothing._

She stepped out into the small clearing.

Almost immediately, a bright green Nadder poked it's head out of the cave. It squawked threateningly and emerged further.

Shelby cautiously held out the fish, hoping desperately that this would go as well as her first meeting with Starlight. Or Dusty's first meeting with Nightscales. Or Erica's-

Shelby decided that she would have to remember to write her theory that her luck had run out down when the Nadder suddenly shot at her with magnesium fire.

Instead of doing some sort of fancy roll and getting out of the way, Shelby's brain must have decided that the best course of action was to just collapse. That's what it seemed like to Shelby, at least, when her legs gave out under her and she was sent falling to the ground.

 _This dirt is incredibly loose,_ was what she found herself thinking as she remained sprawled on the floor. At least it was soft.

 _This is_ not _the time for contemplating the comfort of the floor,_ she scolded herself, beginning to scramble to her feet.

She yelped when something hit her in the side and threw her almost ten metres across the clearing. She landed worryingly close to the cliff. Looking back at the Nadder, she realised that that was probably why she had been hit. The Nadder wanted to send her over the cliff.

 _Well, this is just brilliant. I'm so great at thinking up clever plans,_ she thought sarcastically.

Shelby began to sweep her gaze over the clearing, wondering what she could possibly do next. She didn't have much time. She could see the Nadder creeping slowly closer, and she knew it was probably planning to give her a hard shove over the cliff. A plan that she definitely didn't want to succeed.

She held up her hands, hoping that that meant the same thing for dragons as it did for humans. Apparently, it did not, as the Nadder hardly seemed to notice the attempt at diffusing the situation.

Suddenly, she noticed a familiar shade of pale green poking out of the soil she had disturbed when 'dodging' the blast of fire. She squinted at it, sure she had seen it somewhere before. Wait, the dragon root arrows used by the Hunters! It was the same shade of green as them.

That was dragon root. These Nadders weren't just defensive because of the hatchlings. They were also obsessed with the Dragon Root. It must be interfering with their whole pack dynamics! And more importantly, if Shelby could somehow get rid of it, the Nadders might just let her live here under their protection!

Hopefully…

Wishing that Starlight would just leap out of the bushes and cause a distraction, Shelby began to creep around the Nadder, cautious not to move too fast. It squawked threateningly, and she froze.

_I can't do this._

She pushed the negative thoughts from her head and did her best to force her foot to do another step, wincing as she realised that there was a large gash on her shoulder from where she had been hit a while ago. How had she not noticed that? And more importantly, what had she been thinking? This was a bad idea worthy of the Thorston twins! It must have been when she was talking to them that she had lost her mind.

Shelby forcefully stepped a bit further, but apparently, she had reached the limit of the Nadder's patience, because the dragon leaped forward, and without any real warning, hit her with its tail, hard.

Shelby felt the breath leave her body as the Nadder's tail smashed against her chest. Suddenly her legs were not connected to the floor any longer and she was flying. Not on a dragon's back this time. No, Shelby was flying all by herself, if by flying you mean _falling_ off of a huge cliff. She let out a shriek and flailed desperately, "STARLIGHT!"

Would the dragon get here fast enough to break her fall? So far, whenever Shelby had made a mistake, she had relied on pure luck to find a way to stop herself from joining her grandparents in Valhalla. She had known logically that whatever that streak of luck was would _eventually_ run out, but she had made the mistake of taking it for granted. It looked like now that decision was coming back to bite her.

 _Shelby Reenberg. The girl who_ almost _joined the Dragon Riders. The girl who was a nobody until she was finally accepted, but threw herself off a cliff before she could truly earn her place._

If she did die, then that would probably be how she would be remembered by the Vikings and the Dragon Riders alike.

_I wonder what they'll tell my parents._

Her brain hardly clocked it when someone shouted, " _Shelby!"_ nearby. It was only when her fall was suddenly brought to a halt by someone grabbing her that she realised that she had been able to hear the fluttering of a Gronkle's wings for a while before she even fell over the cliff.

Someone hauled her onto a dragon's back and shook her.

"Shelby! What was that? What were you doing?" she snapped out of her trance to realise that her saviour was Kensley, "why were you head to head with a Nadder? Where's Starlight?" the questions kept coming, and Shelby was never given a chance to answer. Kensley paused for breath.

Shelby took this opportunity to gasp out, "it was the Twins! They switched the maps! They chose me a spot for my hut right next to that nest of Nadders and buried Dragon Root so that the Nadders would be angry. I was trying to get rid of the Dragon Root so that I could build my hut there and have the protection of a pack of dragons!"

Kensley blinked slowly. Then he repeated, "where's Starlight?"

Shelby pointed to the place she had left her dragon. It must have been just out of hearing range so that the Nightfury didn't hear her screams. Shelby shuddered again when she thought about how close she had truly come to death.

Kensley landed Boulder where she instructed, and Shelby instantly dismounted to look for her dragon.

Starlight wasn't there.

"But this is where I left her," Shelby said puzzled.

"Maybe she went to find you," Kensley suggested.

"Maybe, can you-"

Shelby was cut off when the sound of a plasma blast came from the direction of the Nadders. She whirled around just in time to see the explosion.

Kensley said, "didn't you mention dragon root?"

Shelby's eyes widened in realisation, "Starlight must have smelled it and gone to find it!" she cried.

Kensley sighed, "I guess this is why you didn't want to be a Dragon Rider."

Shelby nodded mutely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Please leave a comment. I hope nobody's deserted the story after it hasn't been updated in a while.
> 
> I have a small piece of news. I have a new laptop! I'm so excited. If anyone's interested, which I doubt anyone is, it's light blue and has an awesome touchscreen and can turn into a tablet and...
> 
> I'll stop myself there. You didn't come here to read about my new laptop (even though it's awesome).


	18. Shelby's Great Dragon Root Adventure: Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby frees the Nadders of the Dragon Root- not without some small problems along the way. Problems such as, for example, nearly falling off another cliff (I'm really overusing the 'Shelby's afraid of heights' plot point, aren't I)?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Hi...
> 
> It's... uh... been a while. I've had... a small amount of writer's block. I haven't written anything except that small one-shot crossover you may have seen. And that was only 600 words long... It took me about 4 hours in total. I have not had a productive few weeks.
> 
> This chapter is the last I'll be doing on Shelby's Great Adventure. I didn't want it to overflow into two chapters, so I'm really sorry if the ending feels rushed. It was getting a tiny bit long and I had to cut it short.
> 
> But at least it will mean that when I start writing the next episode, this sub-plot will be completely over and done with.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon. I do, however, own Shelby, Kensley, Dusty, Osmond, Endre, Hillevi, Gunilla and their dragons.

It must have been pure dumb luck that the person who saved Shelby also happened to ride a Gronkle, which were the only dragons known to be immune to dragon root. It was also pure dumb luck that anyone had come along to save her. Shelby must just be really lucky. That theory she had come up with about her luck running out seemed rather far away as she crept through the forest.

 _This is the third terrible plan I’ve had to take part in today,_ she complained in her head, _I’ll have to get my head checked next time I see Gothi._

Above her head, Shelby could hear the constant noise of Boulder’s wings as Kensley followed her in the sky. Shelby hoped he would fly higher when they reached their destination. She didn’t like the idea of the Nadders chasing the much slower dragon.

_Actually, I do like the idea of the Nadders chasing the much slower dragon. That means they won’t be chasing me._

She sighed. Now she was hoping that Kensley would not retreat further upwards and out of sight.

_Concentrate, Shelby._

This plan was, if possible, even worse than Shelby’s last one. Shelby’s last plan had not been well thought out, but it had not involved running directly into the dragon nest and stealing the thing they were guarding. Kensley was planning to use Boulder to cause a distraction while Shelby tried to get away with the dragon root. In theory.

But Shelby had figured out rather quickly that theory didn’t always go alongside reality in the world of the Dragon Riders.

Starlight, like the loyal dragon she was, had deserted her Rider and seemed to be formulating her own plan to uproot the plant. But Shelby had a feeling that Starlight wasn’t quite going to do exactly the same thing that Shelby was. In fact, it seemed that she would have to go against her own dragon this time.

The cave finally came into view, and Shelby would have stepped even lighter if she hadn’t already been trying so hard to be stealthy that her legs were aching terribly. Instead, she walked slower and peeked cautiously out of her spot in the hopes of surveying the target.

 _Wait for Kensley’s signal,_ she reminded herself. She glanced briefly up in the hopes of spotting a small purple Gronkle with a Rider, but instead she saw only clouds.

 _At least there’s clouds,_ she thought optimistically, _they’ll give Kensley a place to hide in._

Although how much of a surprise attack you could launch onto the ground from that high up in the sky was debatable. Kensley would have to be very quick, especially as he was riding a dragon which was not exactly known for extreme speed.

Shelby drew her attention away from her fellow Apprentice and back onto the nest of Nadders. They hadn’t spotted her, but with their incredible sense of smell it wouldn’t be long.

 _Hurry up, Kensley_ she snapped in her mind, _I don’t want to be thrown off of another cliff. Or the same cliff. Neither would be very nice._

About 30 seconds after that, Kensley had not emerged and Shelby was starting to get uneasy. The Nadder guards were starting to look around, as if they had picked up a scent, and Shelby didn’t really want to know what they had picked up.

She watched the Nadders, slightly confused. They weren’t behaving as she would expect them to behave if they had picked up a suspicious scent. It was more like they had _heard_ something. Had she stepped on a twig? She looked at the ground, not seeing anything that could have given her away. But if the Nadders had smelled her, she would already have been dead. They _were_ tracking dragons, after all.

It was when the sound of a plasma blast broke the silence that Shelby realised what it was they were looking around for. If she strained her ears, she could hear the sounds of a dragon fight. By the sounds of it, there was a Nightfury involved, and Shelby had a horrible feeling she knew which dragon had gotten in the way of Starlight.

The Nadders were distracted well enough, so she turned to dart back through the woods in the direction of the sounds, ignoring the racket she made as a result. She needed to find Starlight. If she was attacking Boulder, then Kensley’s dragon wouldn’t stand a chance.

Suddenly she came clear of the trees and had to skid to an abrupt halt when the ground suddenly steepened towards the edge of a cliff.

 _There are TOO MANY cliffs on this island,_ she thought in frustration, waving her arms around to regain her balance.

This wasn’t the one that she had fallen off earlier. No, this one was facing a slightly different direction, highlighting how high up the mountain Shelby had come when looking for the spot chosen for her hut. She was going to _kill_ the Twins later. Thinking about it made her realise that she had told herself that before.

She shook herself. It didn’t matter how likely it was the Twins would stay alive when she got back from her little ‘adventure’. All that mattered was finding her dragon and preferably stopping her from killing Kensley.

She turned away from the cliff with a mindset to look in the direction of the centre of the island.

And came face to face with yet another Nadder.

 _Not this again,_ Shelby thought to herself, more in exasperation than in fear, _these Nadders sure do like knocking people off cliffs._

This Nadder was purple, but not an overly bright girly shade. No, this dragon was a deep, calm shade of violet with swirls of darker purple and black adorning it’s scales. It was the most beautiful Nadder Shelby had seen so far, but she decided that that was not the thing she wanted to focus on right now.

She could tell by the shape of the snout that this was almost definitely a female, which means she was probably guarding babies. That made the situation Shelby was in even more perilous.

 _Why has she left them in the cave?_ Shelby wondered, knowing that mother dragons often bring hatchlings along with them when they leave the nest, _maybe she only has eggs._

That was probably even worse.

Shelby took a small step back, being mindful of the cliff, when the dragon took a step forward. Magenta- _Magenta? When did I start naming all the dragons I see?-_ let out a small squawk at the movement, her eyes flickering to the drop-off behind Shelby.

Shelby stared in disbelief. That kind of behaviour- the squawking and gesturing the obstacle- would suggest-

 _Is Magenta trying to warn me?_ Shelby thought incredulously. She instantly dismissed the thought as ridiculous, as this Nadder had never met her and most likely wanted to get her away from her young.

Even so, the day Shelby had first met Starlight came into her head. She hadn’t thought about it much before now, but she realised that the dragon’s actions didn’t really make sense. She chased off the Changewings to save three humans who could have had bad intentions. After all, she didn’t know what a wild Nightfury’s experience with humans was, but she was guessing it wasn’t good.

But Starlight saving them that day had proved that dragon’s sometimes do things that don’t seem to add up to what you would expect.

Magenta squawked again, drawing Shelby out of her thoughts and bringing her attention back to the problem at hand. The dragon’s gesture towards the danger of the cliff was more obvious this time.

“Yes, I know there’s a cliff behind me,” Shelby snapped without thinking.

The Nadder looked slightly affronted, but even so began to back away. This allowed Shelby to move forwards and away from the edge of the cliff. She was grateful for this, but still kept her eyes warily on the dragon as she stepped forward.

Magenta shuffled her wings. The dragon seemed to have the same idea as Shelby regarding her gaze, which remained on the girl with a bird-like intensity. Shelby forced herself not to flinch under the unwavering stare.

The dragon was not attacking her. That much was apparent. Why, Shelby wasn’t certain, but at least there was something preventing her from being torn to shreds.

Suddenly, Magenta lunged forward and grabbed Shelby’s arm in her teeth. Shelby yelled and braced herself for unbearable pain. But it didn’t come. Instead, the dragon tugged on her arm and pulled her forward, being obviously careful not to accidently bite into the arm. The limb twisted painfully, but Shelby knew it wasn’t dislocated or broken, which was a relief.

Magenta released her and bounded ahead a few steps. She then stopped and looked back at Shelby, head tilted to the side.

_Oh, good, she wants me to follow her. I obviously haven’t had enough excitement for today._

Magenta led her to the edge of the clearing that was being guarded by the flock of Nadders. Shelby stopped there, not particularly wanting to be spotted by some dragon root-crazed dragon who wanted to throw her off a cliff. But Magenta was having none of that. The Nadder hissed threateningly and began to pick her way around the edge of the clearing, clearly expecting to be followed.

Shelby sighed. She supposed she had time to get seriously injured today.

Apparently, Nadders were smarter than Shelby had given them credit for. Magenta had led her to a secret entrance that lead to the cave. It looked like it had been crudely dug out by talons which weren’t particularly meant for digging. The dragon disappeared into it without a second thought, while Shelby looked around for a better option.

She had never really been a sufferer of claustrophobia, but she had to admit that the dark made her slightly nervous. Additionally, the tunnels did not look very stable, and being suffocated by mud was among Shelby’s list of ways she did _not_ want to die. It was, in fact, up there with being ripped apart by angry Deadly Nadders.

But when Magenta stuck her head out again, she sighed and climbed gingerly into the tunnel.

If Shelby was asked to describe her experience in Magenta’s tunnel with one word, it would be quick. You wouldn’t have guessed it by the fact that it looked like a long, dark and dank cave from the entrance, but it simply turned in one direction and emerged in a larger cave with natural light illuminating the inside. Further staring around revealed that the light was actually coming from a tunnel that looked like it lead somewhere further up. It must lead to the clearing with the dragon root, Shelby realised.

A soft squawk from Magenta brought her back to her senses. She looked at the dragon to see that she was sat down next to a small nest containing three large eggs. They were obviously from a Nadder, and Magenta was curled around them protectively. They must be hers!

“Why have you brought me here?” Shelby demanded. She winced as her voice echoed around the chamber. Would the other Nadders be pleased that there was a human in their… was this a hatchery? Were they likely to kill her?

Magenta sniffed and looked in the direction of the exit. Not the one they had come through, but the one that led to the outside. She looked back at Shelby, desperation in her eyes.

“Is this about the dragon root?” Shelby asked.

The Nadder snorted. Shelby didn’t know if Nadders were intelligent enough to understand her like Starlight could, but she was pretty sure that was a yes.

Magenta cast her gaze back to the trio of eggs, and Shelby made the realisation.

_Oh! She wants me to try to get rid of the dragon root so that the other Nadders go back to normal. They must be a threat to her and her eggs when they’re all arguing over it like this._

And to think that the Thorston Twins were supposed to be some kind of experts. What were they thinking? They must have put the dragon root there, ignoring how it was going to endanger the Nadders! She reminded herself to have a word with them later. Preferably just before she killed them.

Bringing her mind back to the more pressing matter at hand had Shelby remember what Magenta wanted her to do. And more importantly, how in Thor’s name she was going to do it. This was the fourth time today she had needed an impossible plan. And she hadn’t even _started_ building her hut.

 _I also have to find Kensley and Starlight,_ she reminded herself.

She quickly made a mental list of what she had. It didn’t take her long, because the entire thing amounted to a Nadder, three eggs which she definitely could _not_ throw at the dragons, and a small knife. Then she sat down with a sigh.

“I think the only thing we can do is just try to dart in there and grab the dragon root,” she said out loud to Magenta.

Luckily, it was likely that the dragon root would not be securely attached to the ground, as the Twins had probably only put it here yesterday. It was a small blessing in a sea of problems, Shelby supposed. It meant that she would probably not have to cut its roots from the dirt.

It had already been established earlier that Shelby’s success regarding tactical distractions was not the best. This thought dragged her mind back to Boulder and Kensley.

 _I think the question is not how likely it is that they’re injured,_ she thought, _but instead how likely it is that they’re_ not _injured._

_So in that case, very unlikely._

So, if Kensley’s help was out of the question, what could Shelby do? Not a lot, actually.

And that was how she found herself on Magenta’s back charging out of the cave. Magenta took off as soon as her wings had space and flew at the clearings centre, where the dragon root was lying. The other dragons who were in the cave caught on to what was happening faster than any human guards would have. They instantly gave chase.

As they neared the green dot, Magenta began to lean over to the side. Shelby resisted the urge to lean the other way and cling tighter, and instead focused her energy on reaching for the plant.

Her fingers lightly brushed the plant, and, on instinct she curled them around the surface. Her arm gave a painful jolt- the Twins must have attached it to the ground somehow- and the dragon root was ripped out of the ground. She withdrew her hand and put it back onto the dragon’s back, clinging on with her fingers as tightly as she could while still holding it.

Magenta beat her wings furiously once she knew that the dragon root was safely within Shelby’s grasp. They shot forwards, rising up towards the sky.

Shelby could hardly believe it! They’d managed it. She let out a whoop of relief.

And then nearly toppled off the dragon she was riding when a plasma blast exploded by her head.

“Ack!” she exclaimed, grabbing Magenta’s neck to stop herself from falling off. Unfortunately, this meant that her grip on the dragon root was released and the green plant went tumbling down towards the forest.

Magenta dived desperately after it, but Shelby was still rather unused to dragons doing unexpected aerial manoeuvres while she was sitting on them.

For what seemed like the millionth time that day, Shelby was falling out of the sky.

“Magenta!” she called, hoping against hope that the dragon would prioritise a human’s survival over her children.

Magenta did not, which was why Shelby found herself, once again, being rescued by Kensley Crosbie.

“Gotcha!” he exclaimed. He looked down with slight amusement, “you really are a terrible Dragon Rider, you know?”

Shelby wasn’t in the mood to think of a retort. She tried desperately to twist in Boulder’s grip to see how Magenta was doing. As it turned out, the Nadder was already diving towards the ocean and was trying to get ahead of the other dragons so that she could safely deposit the dragon root.

Following her gaze, Kensley laughed, “should we help her?”

Shelby shook her head, the adrenaline of her little ‘adventure’ fading fast from her mind, “nah. She’ll be fine.”

As they watched, Magenta finally got the green plant into the water safely.

“I thought Nadders got driven crazy by dragon root,” Kensley said wonderingly.

“She had eggs,” Shelby said. The matter would have interested her, but she just wanted to go back to the clubhouse and sleep for a month, “the motherly instincts must have overpowered whatever dragon root does to their minds.”

Kensley shrugged, beginning to steer Boulder in the direction of Starlight, who was blinking and shaking herself as if awakening from a deep sleep.

Shelby called out as they approached her, “boy, do I have some words to say to you, Starlight.”

The Nightfury had the grace to look sheepish as Shelby was deposited onto her back. Shelby gave her a gentle swat over the head with her hand, and the response she got was a slap on the face with an ear.

“You know you deserve it,” she scolded.

Starlight huffed angrily and began to fly towards the Edge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so concludes 'Shelby's Great Dragon Root Adventure'. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm really sorry about how long this took. I wish I could say that the next update will come sooner, but unfortunately homework and writer's block will not disappear because I forced myself to sit at a desk and write 2,000 words.
> 
> Thanks for reading. Please leave a comment if you can.


	19. An Interesting Patrol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby isn't settling into life on the Edge very well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. I am so sorry about how long this took. I just wanted to say that updates are going to be extremely slow for the foreseeable future, as I have really, really bad writer's block. I have no idea what's happened, but the only things I can write without losing focus right now have to be about 500 words long (you may have seen my Two Fandoms challenge. If not, then I suppose you're lucky.)  
> Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon.

For many days following the incident with the Nadders, Shelby felt like she was dying.

For many weeks following the incident with the Nadders, Shelby felt like she was dying, although not as much.

As it turned out, she had managed to crack, and possibly break, a couple of ribs at some point during her ‘adventure’. Honestly, she wasn’t sure whether it was a good or bad thing that the adrenaline had masked the pain, because on one hand, she had not been in agony while being chased by Nadders. On the other hand, not knowing she was injured and carrying on being chased by Nadders probably had not helped matters in the slightest.

Shelby had been counting the amount of times she had asked herself what in Thor’s name she was doing in the Dragon Riders, and she was in the triple digit numbers. 108, to be exact. That was about four times a day.

She was questioning why she was doing something about four times a day, and she was somehow still on Dragon’s Edge.

But it had been a month, now, and although people still remembered the incident, there hadn’t been as big a reaction as Shelby had expected. She had kind of been hoping she would get some kind of reward for her ‘courage’ in removing the dragon root for the Nadders.

She didn’t really know what she had been expecting. Would the Dragon Riders really say, ‘oh, well done, Shelby, you have gotten yourself into mortal danger several times today, for no apparent reason. Looks like you have fulfilled your destiny as a Dragon Rider. Back to Berk with you, then.’

No, they would never say that. Why? Because mortal danger was perfectly normal for these lunatics.

She might as well have come back to the clubhouse and announced that she had had a fun day trip around the island for all the reaction she got. If that had happened, she would have been briefly told off for not building her hut like she was supposed to, then people would forget about it.

As it was, she had told the Riders what had happened, Hiccup looked surprised, spoke the Twins about how they could have killed her for a grand total of _10 seconds,_ then it seemed everyone’s memory malfunctioned and they went back to whatever mundane task they had been doing.

Fuming, Shelby turned over in her bed. The spot for her hut was deemed too close to the Nadders to be suitable, so she had been given a better one. She had enlisted Dusty’s help in the construction of it- after he had built his- and now she had a decent hut.

She suppressed a small snort when she mentally compared it to Endre’s grand masterpiece. He had insisted on building it by himself despite the obvious flaws in that plan- although he accepted Hillevi and Osmond’s help following the map to get there. He had been rather proud of the fact that he managed it. Everyone came to inspect it, and that meant that everyone, as one, saw what Endre had done wrong.

Endre had somehow managed to build the _entire hut_ facing the wrong direction. How, Shelby had no idea. In fact, she got even more confused when she realised that the mistake was the only thing a blind person would be literally unable to do wrong. Had Endre _not once_ considered the reason why whenever he stepped out of his door, he was not walking downhill, but uphill?

Shelby chuckled softly and rolled over onto her back. Over in the corner, Starlight gave an impatient hum.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” she complained as she slowly sat up in bed, “honestly, I have _no idea_ why you always want me up at 7 in the morning.”

Starlight huffed and licked her lips. _I want breakfast,_ was Shelby’s best attempt at a translation.

“It’s ok for you,” she muttered while she quickly scooped up the saddle from it’s stand, “you just eat fish. I have to wait for the person on breakfast duty.”

Starlight snorted.

“Hey, I can’t make it every time. I’m a terrible cook,” she responded to the obvious question.

They fluttered down to the clubhouse and landed, slightly sluggishly, at the entrance.

“What do you know? Dusty’s not available to cook eggs at seven in the morning? I would never have guessed it!” she exclaimed sarcastically. Starlight completely ignored her and padded into the room towards where the food was stored. Shelby followed, still muttering about how much she hated mornings.

Shelby was slightly worried about the sheer number of fish Starlight consumed in a day. The dragon was like a bottomless pit. She could only hope that the amount of exercise she did would cancel out any build-up of unwanted fat.

She sat down and leaned heavily against the wall, as she did every morning when her dragon rudely demanded that she drag herself out of bed at an ungodly hour. She regarded her very elegant Night Fury, who was currently wolfing down fish from a large barrel, with tired amusement. She briefly wondered if she should stop her, but decided that if Starlight got a tummy-ache, it was Starlight’s fault and therefore not Shelby’s problem. She wasn’t going to be the one who had to put effort into flying throughout the whole of their patrol later today.

Yes, the Dragon Rider Apprentices now had to do patrols. Although many of them- not, of course, including Shelby- had regarded this opportunity with excitement, it became apparent that patrols were boring, repetitive, and annoying. And, judging by the lack of activity from any Dragon Hunter ships, completely unnecessary.

“You’re here early,” Dusty observed as he and Nightscales touched down on the landing pad.

 _You’ve come for your breakfast turn three times this month, and all three of the times this has happened. Stop sounding so surprised,_ Shelby would have said. But she found that she was far too tired to voice what had come to her mind, and merely snapped, “good morning to you, too.”

“Want to help make breakfast?” the other Apprentice made another attempt at conversation.

“Not really,” Shelby replied, turning away in an attempt to tell him that _no,_ she had not developed the desire to _willingly_ talk to anyone overnight.

“Let me rephrase. You’re helping me make breakfast,” he said matter-of-factly, “come on, you could have started by now, you lazy-”

“Fine,” Shelby didn’t particularly want to hear the end of that sentence due to the fact that she did _not_ like being called names.

They ended up cooking what they always cooked. Eggs and soup. Shelby was absolutely _sick_ of eggs and soup. If she didn’t get something else tomorrow for breakfast, she was going to start seeing eggs and soup in her nightmares.

“Stop complaining,” Dusty ordered when she voiced this thought out loud.

“You say that about everything,” she pointed out, “I might as well talk to an imaginary Dusty in my head for all the surprises I get.

“That’s because you’re always complaining,” he sprinkled a small amount of salt into the soup and cautiously smelled it, “see? It’s gonna taste great.”

“It doesn’t matter how great it tastes. It’s _still soup._ The _same soup_ that we had yesterday. And the day before. And the day before. Oh yeah, and guess what, we had it the day before that,” Shelby muttered.

Dusty snorted softly to himself, shaking his head.

 _It’s wonderful that you are so amused by my suffering,_ she thought.

There was a contented hum from behind them, and they turned around to see Starlight curled up asleep next to the empty barrel of fish.

“Oh yes,” Shelby called. Starlight twitched an ear, letting her know she was listening, “just drag Shelby out of bed, force her down to the Clubhouse so that you can eat your breakfast and _Shelby_ can make _all the other apprentices_ breakfast with the poor Apprentice who has to do it anyway, then just catch up on your sleep while she slaves away in the kitchen. Do this every morning without fail and you will finally have a Rider who is an insomniac.”

Shelby wasn’t sure if Starlight had been listening to the whole of her rant, but she turned around anyway, and continued chopping the onions.

“Wow, you are grumpy today,” Dusty said to her.

“I’m grumpy every day.”

“Fair point.”

They finished making breakfast in silence, occasionally glaring at each other or exchanging an insult. Shelby was pretty sure by this point that Starlight had collapsed from eating too much food, because the dragon didn’t wake up even when Dusty decided that he wanted to cook a fish to add to his own breakfast, and opened the cupboard containing the fish. The fact that she didn’t wake up was alarming more than relieving, and Shelby decided to get up and poke her with a stick to make sure she wasn’t dead.

As it turned out, Starlight was not dead, but she _was_ rather annoyed that she got prodded with a stick. Shelby had to hastily run to find some buckets of water before the whole clubhouse burnt down.

By the time that whole fiasco was resolved, Dusty and Shelby finally returned their attention to the breakfast they had been halfway through cooking. Only then did they realise that they had been away for too long and practically everything was burnt. Except the soup. The soup was still loyally bubbling away in its little pot over the stove.

“What do we do now?” Dusty demanded, glaring between Shelby and her guilty-looking dragon, “the others won’t want _just soup_ for breakfast.”

Shelby put her hands on her hips in a rather cliché move, “They’ll have to just make do, won’t they?”

“Oh, so only Shelby’s allowed to complain about everything?” Dusty shouted. Shelby opened her mouth to retort, but he stopped her before she could by raising a hand apologetically, “alright, I didn’t mean that. I’m just frustrated,” he took a couple of deep breaths and turned back to his soup, looking rather angry for someone who was trying to calm down.

They finished up the soup as quickly and disaster-free as possible, then sat down at the table with their portions to wait for the other Apprentices. Shelby didn’t really see why they had to start every morning in this way. She would much rather sort out her own breakfast and leave the other Apprentices to do what they liked. No matter who made the breakfast or what they made, it always ended in an argument.

It had originally been Hillevi’s idea to have a schedule on who would make breakfast. Because she was Hillevi and everyone liked her, everyone had agreed and roped Shelby in on the whole thing. Personally, Shelby had several good reasons not to like it. One of the less selfish ones was that it separated them from the other Riders.

In fact, everyone on the Edge seemed to complain that there were two completely separate groups. They had done a few ‘team-building’ exercises, and none of them had worked. The Apprentices still preferred to stick together rather than be part of the larger group. It was mostly the Riders’ fault. They were such a closely banded team that letting anyone else into their ranks was very unusual for them. And Riders like Astrid and Snotlout still viewed the Apprentices as nothing but children who shouldn’t really be there and needed to prove themselves.

Shelby was rudely awakened from her thoughts by Gunilla’s annoying voice, “what? Just soup? You can’t only make soup.”

“We burnt everything else,” Dusty said, a little sadly. He glanced sideways, “including the wall.”

Hillevi, who had crept up behind the other Apprentice, took one look at the charred mess Starlight’s wayward plasma blast had made of the clubhouse wall and gasped, “oh no! You’re going to be in so much trouble.”

“I don’t think so,” Shelby muttered, remembering how little repercussions the Twins had faced for sending her into a nest of angry Nadders.

Soon, they were joined by Kensley and Endre, who arrived together and were engaged in a heated argument about patrols. It turned out that Endre had taken one of Kensleys patrols a few days ago and wanted Kensley to take one of his as repayment.

“I can’t,” Kensley told him, “I have training with Astrid later.”

“You can do both,” Endre snapped.

Shelby shifted uncomfortably, and out of the corners of her eyes she could see Gunilla and Dusty doing the same. She could see both of their points. Kensley did need to take one of Endre’s patrols in order to thank him, but on the other hand she certainly wouldn’t want to be tired from a patrol when she was needed to train with Astrid. The Nadder Rider was an extremely strict teacher, and it seemed to Shelby that she looked for every possible excuse to get them kicked off the Island.

She remembered Osmond complaining about this one lunchtime. Hillevi had gently told them that Astrid was only doing it to protect the younger Riders.

“She doesn’t agree with Hiccup’s decision to involve us. She worries that if someone attacks the Edge, we could get hurt,” the other Apprentice had said.

The revelation that Astrid actually cared about them had been one of surprised outrage for most of the Apprentices. Gunilla had declared fiercely that, “Astrid had better not destroy my chances of becoming a full Dragon Rider.”

To Shelby’s worry, these Apprentices had not learned from their disastrous attempt to prove themselves, because Kensley had agreed, “yeah. We’re perfectly capable of defending ourselves.”

Endre had said dryly, “I have to disagree with you there. Do any of you remember a certain mission involving Glacier Island, or have you blocked that from your mind?”

“We learnt our lesson. And we’ve trained since then,” Gunilla had retorted. And that was pretty much the end of the conversation.

Endre and Kensley now sat on opposite sides of the table, glaring angrily at each other. Gunilla made some comment to Kensley about how well a blind Rider could do a patrol, and that was it. The table dissolved into chaos as Endre threw his soup at his sister.

Shelby carefully made her way to the back of the room, watching as Gunilla, fuming, responded in the same fashion.

_This is exactly why we shouldn’t always go with people’s suggestions just because they’re nice to everyone and are pretty._

It took them a moment to regain the peace that had been shattered. Shelby crept back into her seat to see that someone had used her soup as a missile.

 _That’s fine,_ she gritted her teeth, trying not to lash out at anyone, _it was disgusting anyway._

And so it was that Shelby ended up going on patrol with a painfully empty belly.

“I hate it here,” she declared to Starlight. The dragon didn’t respond in any decipherable way apart from to flap her wings and jolt Shelby slightly, “I hate the people, I hate the buildings, I hate the landscape, and I hate the fact that I’m going to have to fight the Dragon Hunters here for the next few years.”

Starlight shot her a concerned look. They were currently soaring around the northern side of the island on patrol. There _was_ a watchtower, but Shelby had opted to stay away from it due to the fact that she didn’t want to spend hours standing near the Twins.

They reached the edge of the area they needed to keep watch over and Starlight swooped around to fly back the other way. Shelby tightened her grip ever so slightly on the saddle, but a month of vigorous training had done her some good and she managed to stay on the saddle without so much as a wobble.

Starlight hummed softly, and Shelby took that to mean, _see? You’re improving._

 _Yes,_ she thought, _but it’s taking me_ so long! _The other Riders go out on obstacle courses in their free time for fun, and I still hate every second I’m sitting on Starlight’s back!_

She didn’t say that out loud. Instead she just cast another sweeping look over the horizon.

“I don’t think there’s any ships,” she told the Nightfury, “and our patrol’s nearly over. Maybe we should head back.”

Starlight didn’t have any objections. With a dangerous twist in the air, the dragon started to head towards the village.

“Should we tell the twins the patrol is over?” Shelby wondered. She instantly dismissed the idea. The twins did nothing but mock her whenever she was around. If they wanted to come off patrol, they would have by now, “nah. Let’s just go get this report over and done with.”

 _Yay! I love reporting to Astrid that there_ isn’t _anything to report. It’s such a good use of my time. Why can’t she just assume that there wasn’t anything to report when we don’t come back._

Nope. According to Astrid, they were now an elite military team.

She knew that the Nadder Rider would be the next person who would be on watch. So all she had to do was hover a safe distance away from the twins around the watchtower and wait for her.

It didn’t take long for Astrid to arrive.

“Guys!” she called, not spotting Shelby in her impatience, “you are officially relieved from guard duty,” there wasn’t a response, “guys!” she called again. Astrid landed her dragon and stormed into the room, muttering about something. She was briefly out of sight of Shelby and Starlight, but then she emerged, holding two helmets in her hands.

Shelby rolled her eyes. The twins must have set up a trick. She shared a glance with Starlight, wondering if it was wise to risk Astrid’s wrath by saying something.

Too late. Astrid had swiftly climbed onto Stormfly’s back and flew away. Shelby shrugged and began to guide Starlight back the long way. Hopefully Astrid would have cooled down somewhat by then.

“They didn’t stand their watch, Hiccup!” was the first thing Shelby heard when she headed towards Hiccup’s hut, “those dummies left two dummies in their place.”

“Y’know,” Hiccup said slowly, “those dummies could conceivably be _just as effective_ as the twins.”

“Not funny,” Astrid didn’t appreciate Hiccup’s humour, “and I have no idea where that mutton-headed Apprentice went.”

Shelby finally announced her presence, “I’m here,” she shouted, landing Starlight, “I was patrolling around the general area to get away from the twins,” at Hiccup’s pointed look, she added, “I don’t know where they went.”

“You shouldn’t have left them alone. Those two need supervision at all times,” Astrid snapped, fuming.

“ _I_ didn’t know that!” Shelby exclaimed, “as far as I was concerned, _they_ were supervising _me.”_

Astrid looked like she was going to say more, but then her eyes focused on something behind Shelby, “well, if it isn’t our crack security team,” she announced sarcastically. Shelby whirled around to see the twins coming into land on Barf and Belch.

The twins caught the helmets that were thrown to them, and Tuffnut said, “please, please. There’s no need to shower us with accolades.”

“Tuff, you left two dummies to protect this entire base,” Astrid said in her no-nonsense voice (which was her only voice).

“Well, actually-” Shelby started.

“What were you thinking?” Astrid was either deaf or didn’t care about the fact that Shelby was perfectly capable of seeing a ship coming with or without the twins.

“Dummies, you say?” Tuffnut sounded vaguely offended.

“She does,” Ruffnut agreed, “poor confused thing.”

While Astrid’s eyes flickered between them angrily, Tuffnut continued, “what you fail to realise in your foggy morning state, is that those were not dummies.”

“Then what were they?” Shelby asked, thinking back to the short glimpse she had got of the two objects. She wouldn’t have gotten involved in the argument, but she wanted to get on Astrid’s good side. She would rather not be cleaning out the stables for the entirety of the remaining week. She was, however, looking forward to whatever punishments the twins would receive. She wasn’t close to forgiving them for the Nadder thing just yet.

Tuffnut’s attention seemed barely to flit to her, as if she was just an annoying bug, “those were scareships,” he said.

“Scareships?” Astrid repeated sceptically, “you’re serious?”

“You didn’t see any ships near the island, did you?” Ruffnut pointed out.

“No,” Tuffnut answered his sister, “because they were appropriately scared away. By the appropriately named scareships.”

There was a moment of silence, which Shelby used mainly to contemplate whether or not ships would even be able to see the two dummies (which she refused to call ‘scareships’. They would be ‘the twins’ dummies’ if they had to be anything), then Astrid turned to Hiccup, “are you following any of this?”

“Not super closely,” Hiccup mused, “I’m actually reading this.”

Shelby turned around to see him holding a piece of paper in his hands. A terror mail must have arrived while everyone had been arguing.

The leader of the Dragon Riders turned his attention back to the others, “it’s from Johann,” he said, “he’s in trouble.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Please leave a comment. They really help, even if they just say 'I like the story. Looking forward to the next chapter'. Especially now, since my motivation for writing is very low, you might find that taking the time to write a couple of sentences could get the story updated quicker.


	20. A day with Astrid Hofferson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby and the Apprentices help Astrid and the Twins build some stairs. It doesn't go very well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry about how long updates have been taking recently. I've had such a bad case of writer's block which seems to sort of be going away now, but I'm not sure. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Shelby had a feeling that Astrid wasn’t quite grasping the concept that everyone found her more annoying than she found them. She was currently in a heated argument with Hiccup about how little she wanted to spend time with either the twins or the Apprentices. This was something that Shelby found rather offensive, although she decided that it wouldn’t be a great idea to say that out loud.

Apparently, the twins didn’t find it any more flattering than she did, because they were constantly interrupting everyone else with senseless comments.

“We’ll be back by tomorrow at the latest,” Hiccup promised, “just-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Gunilla came charging towards them, trailed by Dusty, Kensley, Hillevi, and a rather uncomfortable-looking Osmond, “Mission,” she panted, doubling over, “can we come?”

Dusty continued for her, “we’ll do everything you say. We _promise._ We’ll even stay out of the action and just be back-up.”

Shelby raised an eyebrow. Somehow, she doubted the other Apprentices were likely to keep to that promise.

Hiccup folded his arms, “after the last time you ended up on a mission? Absolutely not.”

 _“Please!_ We’ve trained so hard since then,” Gunilla begged.

“No,” Hiccup insisted.

Gunilla narrowed her eyes, “then when are we going to be allowed on a mission? Are we just going to stay on Dragon’s Edge for the rest of time? Where it’s supposed to be _safe?_ If you wanted to keep us safe, you could have just left us on Berk.”

“She has a point, you know,” Fishlegs added.

“Not you too,” Hiccup groaned.

Fishlegs looked a little nervous about arguing, but he continued, “it’s been a whole month since Glacier Island. Shelby even saved a whole pack of Nadders by removing a Dragon Root plant put there by the twins. Surely that means Shelby’s more responsible than the twins.”

“Everyone’s more responsible than the twins,” Astrid argued.

Meanwhile, Shelby was backing away slowly, _you are_ not _dragging me into this one, Gunilla._

Luckily, Hiccup still looked unconvinced, “they don’t have armour,” he pointed out.

“We can dodge the arrows,” Dusty called desperately. Shelby wanted to smack her forehead in exasperation.

“It’s just too risky,” Hiccup sighed, “you will come on missions eventually, I promise,” and with that, he shot Astrid one more encouraging smile and took off, Fishlegs and Snotlout following soon after.

Gunilla and her little team stood staring after them furiously.

“We’ll miss you,” Tuffnut called to his departing friends, “write home often. Right,” he said as he turned around, “I think that the first team building exercise we should perform is the act of going back to sleep,” he noticed his mistake, “as a team, of course.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Ruffnut nodded, “what say you, Astrid?”

Astrid glared at them with such rage that Gunilla was put to shame, “I have to go hide this,” she held up the Dragon Eye, “and when I get back, I expect all of you to be sweating profusely from hard work.”

Shelby sidled over to Gunilla and the others as Astrid walked away, “if you guys go after them and get yourselves captured _again,_ I swear to Thor, there will not be a heroic rescue if I have any say in the matter,” she vowed. She then stormed away, not giving any of them a chance to respond.

Astrid was trying to build a set of stairs. Apparently, she saw the absence of Hiccup as a perfect opportunity to use the twins and the Apprentices to help her build it.

“What say you, Astrid?” Tuffnut was scolding his sister, “haven’t I always told you that it’s better to beg for permission than ask for forgiveness?”

Ruffnut glared at him, looking alarmingly serious for someone engaged in a nonsense conversation, “personally, I think it’s the other way around,” she argued.

“Oh, so now you’re the literary authority on the subject of permissions and forgivenesses?” Tuffnut exclaimed sceptically.

Shelby was extremely relieved when Astrid shut them up, “quit talking. You lose focus when your mouth is moving.”

“I’m Astrid-” Tuffnut then let out a stream of indecipherable nonsense that sounded mocking.

“Real mature, guys,” Astrid said, looking over her shoulder at them.

Tuffnut looked at the pile he was to deposit the log on, and his eyes widened, “have we done all of those already? Man, we are kicking some serious-”

“No, no no,” Astrid chided, “that’s your first one. All the others, me and the Apprentices did by ourselves,” she turned to face them fully, “go team,” she added sarcastically.

The twins shrugged, then lazily threw the log onto the pile. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay where they had intended it to. Instead, the entire pile of logs Shelby had helped to build rolled over a nearby cliff. Their dragon watched the wood tumble away with a slightly bemused expression, then, as though they had figured out the ultimate solution, let go of the log they had been holding so that it could join the others.

Astrid gave a heavy sigh, “you know what? Me, Shelby, Gunilla, and Kensley will get the rest of the lumber ourselves. Everyone else, start lashing together these poles for the stairs. Think you can handle that?”

“Don’t rope us in,” Dusty protested.

“Literally,” Tuffnut sniggered. When Dusty only glared at him, he attempted to explain his logic, “get it? Because you said ‘rope’ and we’re going to be using-”

“Yes, I get it, Tuffnut,” Dusty said.

Shelby was forced to, once again, help Astrid with the lumber. Her already aching arms protested against the weightlifting, and she wished she had stayed in bed this morning. No-one would notice her absence.

As she and Gunilla manoeuvred the log towards the pile, she caught sight of Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who were being very helpful. They had somehow managed to get themselves tangled in the ropes they were supposed to be using to tie the poles together.

Shelby gave a sigh almost identical to the one Astrid had given when the twins had knocked the pile of logs over. Honestly! If she had messed around this much, Astrid would have thrown her off the cliff to join the logs.

From Dragon’s Edge, the Dragon Riders didn’t look like such an elite team. Shelby wondered what Dag and Lin would have thought if they had seen what was going on with them now.

As she watched, Dusty swung around from where he was busily doing his work to snap at the pair of idiots. This only got an angry response that ended in the twins arguing amongst themselves about how they could kill the Apprentices without Astrid noticing. It involved dummies and was rather violent.

 _If they don’t shut up,_ I’m _going to throw them over the cliff,_ Shelby decided before going back for more logs.

Shelby was busy collecting the wood when an enormous crash sounded from the direction of the log pile. She followed Gunilla and Kensley as they ran towards the source of the disturbance. They burst into the clearing to see the second pile of logs happily rolling towards the edge of the cliff, bobbing cheerfully over the bumps in the grass as they went.

Astrid, who had turned around and braced herself after the twins had fallen on top of the pile, swung around, murder in her eyes when Tuffnut hauled himself to his feet and yelled, “Astrid! You have _got_ to try this. The landing’s a little rough, but-”

“Astrid,” Ruffnut interrupted, “we know this wasn’t what you were planning, but we really think we’re onto to something here. The stairs have their own use for sure, but this could really come in handy.”

“It can, huh?” Astrid asked.

Ruffnut clearly didn’t see how dangerous the situation was becoming, because she ploughed ahead. Shelby wondered if she should intervene, but dismissed the thought. If Ruffnut wanted to get herself brutally murdered, then it wasn’t Shelby’s problem.

“Yes,” the female twin said eagerly, “in the right situation-”

Astrid straightened up, glaring at the other Dragon Rider, “oh yeah, and what situation would that be, exactly?”

Ruffnut looked stumped, and Shelby felt a twinge of pity for her.

After the female twin had stuttered out a few half-sentences, Astrid interrupted again, “you have no clue, do you? Didn’t think so.”

“Was that a retocrical question?” asked Tuffnut quietly. Shelby snorted softly, wondering what that was about.

“And do you know why? Because the two of you don’t think. You don’t plan. You just come up with these crazy ideas and you forge ahead with no regard for logic or what you’re actually supposed to be doing.”

“Wow, she is really going for it,” Dusty, who had carefully made his way over to Shelby and Kensley, muttered.

“What am I going to do with you guys?” Astrid demanded, “seriously. Tell me.”

“Well,” Ruffnut said, a little danger creeping into her own gaze, “you can start by being kind.”

Astrid stared at her, bemused.

“Oh, wait, you can’t,” Ruffnut continued venomously, “because kindness is nowhere in that scrawny little body of yours.”

“What?” Astrid protested.

Secretly, Shelby was cheering for Ruffnut. Maybe the older Dragon Rider would get them off of lumber duty.

“Easy, sis,” Tuffnut advised, gently trying to restrain her from stepping any closer to Astrid.

“Back off, bro,” Ruffnut snapped. She turned her eyes back to Astrid, “I got this.”

Astrid rose to the challenge, “do you know what your problem is, Ruffnut?” she asked with a glare that would have made any one of the Apprentices, even Gunilla, run straight back to Berk.

Ruffnut gave a confident laugh as she said, “oh, you bet I do. I’ve got a list of problems so long I can barely even keep track. The question is, do you know what _your_ problem is, Astrid?”

“My problem?” Astrid looked stumped, “are you serious?”

“Let me lay it out for you, my flaxen-haired friend,” Ruffnut said as casually as if she was about to tell Astrid about how the weather was doing, “you have no respect for the people around you who are just trying to help and be a part of the team. You have no respect for Fishlegs, certainly none for Snotlout, and you couldn’t have less respect for the two of us,” by this point, Shelby was backing away, preferring to be nearer to the cliff than near Astrid when the Dragon Rider inevitably lost her temper with Ruffnut.

“You can go ahead and shame the others,” Ruffnut’s eyes flickered to the group of confused Apprentices, “you can mock this entire island of dragons if you wish. But I am NOT going to STAND HERE and listen to you insult the ENTIRE nut FAMILY TREE!” at the end of Ruffnut’s speech, Astrid even had to lean back a bit from her fellow Dragon Rider. This brought Shelby immense satisfaction. Apparently, the second-in-command wasn’t quite as tough as she made herself out to be.

Ruffnut stalked away after she had finished, and as Tuffnut walked past, Astrid said to him, “she’s wrong, you know. I-” she sighed, “I respect you guys.”

“Please,” Tuffnut said, “you can barely even say it. So sad, Astrid. So, so sad.”

Shelby and the other Apprentices, apart from Gunilla, decided to follow the pair of older Dragon Riders as they left Astrid standing there, slightly stunned. As they left, Shelby heard the Dragon Rider mutter, “Hiccup. Where are you when I need you?”

“That was awesome,” Endre commented to Ruffnut, “I’ve never seen someone stand up to Astrid like that before.”

Ruffnut barely acknowledged him. She and Tuffnut broke away from the Apprentices in order to go in a different direction. Shelby followed the walkway that led to her hut. Astrid hadn’t wanted too many dragons getting in the way of their building site, so Starlight was there when she came in.

The Nightfury tilted her head questioningly, inquiring as to why her Rider was home so early today.

Shelby explained what had happened to her, not particularly caring about how much her dragon understood. She walked over to her desk, realising that it had been a while since she had read anything, and picked up a book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you can.


	21. Shelby's very not important mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shelby manages to get out of fighting in a battle... and instead ends up getting attacked by Dragon Hunters near a mysterious island which isn't on any maps.
> 
> Oh, yeah, and you know how the Dragon Eye is kind of important? Well...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. 
> 
> I've got a chapter that is slightly longer than usual to make up for the horrendous update schedule I've had for the past few chapters. As for whether or not this will somehow make me any better at not being lazy... well... we'll see.

Shelby was quite happy to stay that way for the rest of the week, sitting in her chair reading a book. She found books interesting because they were far less difficult than people, and she didn’t particularly like it when said people disturbed her reading to announce that Dragon Hunters had kidnapped one of her team-mates.

Her first response to Dusty’s news was to turn away and continue reading. But after he had stormed up to her and snatched to book from her hands as easily as if she had not been holding it, she had to admit that maybe rescuing Ruffnut was a good idea.

“This is serious, Shelby,” he snapped, “Astrid wants everyone in the clubhouse, now.”

Shelby didn’t really care too much about what Astrid wanted, but she nonetheless mounted Starlight and followed the other Dragon Rider towards the building.

When they got there, they could already hear the nervous chatter of the other Apprentices. They were all here.

“Awesome. We’re the last ones,” Dusty muttered in a tone of voice that made it clear that he thought it was entirely her fault. She wanted to snap at him about how he was the one who delivered the message late, but stopped when Astrid stood up.

“Great, you’re all here,” Astrid stood. Her body language suggested that she was confident, but Shelby could see her eyes darting around the room.

The Dragon Rider was worried.

And if _Astrid Hofferson_ was worried, Shelby had a feeling the problem wasn’t something they could casually wave away.

“What happened?” Gunilla demanded. The Apprentice didn’t look as worried as Astrid did. She looked confused, and a little annoyed.

It was Tuffnut who responded, “Ruffnut got kidnapped by Dragon Hunters,” he told them all.

“Yes, we know _that_ ,” Gunilla rolled her eyes, “what about details? how many are there? Are we going to fight them?” the last question was spoken eagerly. Shelby wished she could share her fellow Apprentice’s enthusiasm.

“There’s too many to fight with only one flyable dragon,” Astrid explained, “I’m sending for the Auxiliary riders.”

Kensley cleared his throat angrily, “we don’t have _only one flyable dragon,”_ he said scornfully, “we have _several flyable dragons.”_

“You are not going into combat until there is absolutely no other option,” Astrid said levelly.

“But there is no other option,” Gunilla pleaded.

Dusty nodded, “yeah. What are we supposed to do? Hide on another island while the Hunters kill everyone on the Edge?”

“That’s exactly what you’re going to do. You’re not ready for a fight on this scale,” Astrid argued.

“I’m all for it,” Shelby put her hand up.

Gunilla lost it, “now listen here,” she snapped, walking up to Shelby and pushing her against the wall, “you’re not going to hide away while Dragon Riders risk their lives, and I’m not either,” she turned around to address the rest of the group, specifically Astrid, “on one of the first times you flew on a dragon, you fought the Red Death,” she pointed out.

Kensley nodded, “none of you, even Hiccup, had gone through the kind of Dragon Riding training you’ve put us through over the last few weeks. We’re nowhere near as good as you are, but there’s no point in training us for a month then hiding us somewhere while you get slaughtered by Dragon Hunters.”

“You’re not ready,” Astrid repeated.

“No,” it was Dusty who continued, “we’re not. And unless you let us do something for once rather than watch us destroy targets and dummies, we’re never going to be ready. We’re always going to be ‘that group of children who Hiccup wants us to train to be Dragon Riders’ to you. Ok, so Gunilla, Kensley, and I may not have been as responsible as we could have been with the Glacier Island incident. But Endre, Hillevi, Osmond and Shelby followed us and they _were_ responsible. We can help,” Shelby had to admit that the end of Dusty’s speech was a little pathetic, but he meant well.

Astrid looked away, “Hiccup’s going to kill me for this,” she muttered to herself. Then, louder, she ordered, “Hillevi, Osmond, I want you to scout out the Dragon Hunter fleet. Find out exactly how many ships they have, how good their defences are, and look for Ruffnut. And _please_ try not to get captured too.”

Hillevi dipped her head, a smile on her face, before racing out of the door. Osmond reluctantly followed her. They swung onto their dragon and retreated towards the attacking fleet of ships.

Astrid watched them go, looking like she wanted to call them back for a moment before turning to the remaining Apprentices and Tuffnut, “Tuffnut and I are going to set up two separate defence systems which we hope will hold them off long enough for help to arrive. Kensley, Endre, go with Tuffnut and see if you can help him set up his. Gunilla, Dusty, you’re with me.”

“And what about Shelby?” Gunilla demanded, obviously worried Shelby would be allowed to hide as she wanted.

Astrid turned her gaze to Shelby, “I can’t force you to put your life in danger if you don’t want to,” she said quietly, “if you don’t want to fight, then I have another job for you.”

Shelby nodded, showing that she was willing.

“I hid the Dragon Eye over by the cliff that faces the docks. I want you to take it, and find Hiccup, Snotlout, and Fishlegs. Explain the situation to them and see if they can hide it on the island which they found Trader Johann’s ship by. Get them to come back here as soon as you can.”

Shelby nodded, grateful that she wouldn’t be put in combat this time. She started to leave, but Astrid called her back.

“And, Shelby,” she turned around again, “the Dragon Eye must not fall into the Dragon Hunters’ hands. If you have to fight to defend it, you must.”

Shelby sighed, “I won’t let them take it,” she promised.

Astrid frowned slightly, as if she doubted her decision to give the priceless artefact to Shelby of all people (and Shelby wouldn’t have blamed her), but nodded. Shelby turned and ran towards Starlight, “looks like we have a mission, girl,” she said.

They found the Dragon Eye hidden by the cliff, exactly where Astrid had described. Shelby was surprised at even this small victory. She could pretty much guarantee that things would not continue to go this well for her.

Luckily, the Apprentices had been given a brief description of where it was the Riders were going. They had headed to another island which was a few hours’ journey from the Edge. Hopefully, if Starlight flew quickly enough, Shelby could reach Hiccup and the others, and the situation would be in someone else’s hands before the whole thing went too far south.

Unfortunately, ‘a few hours flight away’ did not help Shelby to know which direction she was supposed to be heading in. Nor did it provide a clue as to exactly how long she should fly in that exact direction for.

The only piece of information she had was the direction she had seen the Dragon Riders leave in. And they could have changed direction to go around something.

So she was pretty much flying blind. No matter how much fun it was to joke among the Apprentices about how easy it would be to follow Snotlout by scent, the observation didn’t hold any usefulness in a real situation. Especially not over water.

She pulled out the map that she kept in her saddlebag. Her best guess as to which island she was heading for boiled down to ‘the closest one that the Dragon Riders could have been going to in that direction.’

And that was just wishful thinking. She didn’t think Trader Johann specifically tried to be close to the Edge whenever he got into trouble.

Well, he probably tried, but he wouldn’t be able to manage it every time.

After she had been flying for an hour, Shelby began to actually panic.

It wasn’t the same as her fear of heights. No, that fear came on suddenly, and made her freeze so much that she literally couldn’t speak.

This fear was a creeping dread that had been sitting in the back of her mind since she had left the Edge to go on her mission.

So much was relying on her ability to find this island. Not only the lives of everyone back on the Edge, but also her own and Starlight’s. She couldn’t keep flying forever, obviously.

But the worst thing was that if she failed, and lost the Dragon Eye, she would probably be kicked out of the Dragon Riders and sent back to Berk. Back to her old life. Back to her parents. Shelby might complain about how much she hated Dragon’s Edge, but she had hated living with Dag and Lin far more.

She pushed the thoughts from her mind before she could dwell on them. She was being ridiculous. It didn’t mean anything that she hadn’t seen land yet. The distance to the nearest island would take far more time to cover.

Below her, Starlight rumbled a complaint.

Shelby sighed, her temper flaring as she realised what exactly was wrong, “Starlight! It’s not my fault you ate all those fish. Just keep flying and don’t you dare fall out of the sky!”

The Nightfury didn’t make a response, but Shelby could tell she was annoyed.

Her thoughts once again returned to the Edge. Had the ships landed yet? Was she too late? She didn’t know how fast boats moved, but they had certainly been quite close the last time she saw them.

Suddenly Starlight tilted her wings forward, causing them to start descending slowly through the clouds.

“What are you doing?” she snapped at her dragon, “we need to get to the island.”

They finally broke through the layer of mist and got a good view of the empty ocean.

“What is it?” Shelby asked, noticing that Starlight was running her gaze over the waves. Shelby looked around. Nothing but endless water for as far as the eye could see, “come on, it’s just empty ocean. Now let’s go before we lose track of which direction we were heading in.”

Starlight shook off Shelby’s hand when she reached to touch the side of her head. She began to head downwards faster, ignoring all of Shelby’s attempts to convince her otherwise. Her ears were pricked, as if she had heard something.

Shelby strained her ears to try to hear what her dragon had been distracted by. It was only once they had got even closer to the surface of the water that she heard it.

“HELP!” the cry was far away, even if the person who was shouting was shouting extremely loudly.

“Head towards it,” Shelby ordered Starlight.

Without hesitation, the dragon turned in the air and began to fly in the direction that the sound was coming from. Shelby tried desperately to keep track of how much they had turned, but that was cast from her mind when she saw where the sound was coming from.

Clinging desperately to a piece of driftwood were two people. One was a girl around Shelby’s age. She had blond hair which clung to her face, soaked from the seawater. The second was a boy who’s face shape and hair colour matched his companion’s perfectly. He must have been her brother.

It didn’t look like there was any more wood in the area around them that would suggest they had been in a shipwreck, which puzzled Shelby. She didn’t have much time to consider the problem, because Starlight dived towards the pair suddenly, as if it were a race to get to them.

The Nightfury scooped up the two people and, with them screaming hysterically, began to fly away faster than Shelby would think was necessary.

She fought the urge to put her hands over her ears to shield from their screaming. She didn’t stop to consider for a moment whether they were screaming because of Starlight, or if-

_Whoosh._

Suddenly, the area of water the people had been plucked from exploded. From it burst a huge dragon which Shelby couldn’t immediately identify, what with the whole ‘lets get away first and figure this out later’ mindset that both Starlight and herself fell into the moment they saw the first splash.

Starlight zoomed towards the clouds in the hope that the creature would be unable to fly. Luck seemed to be for once on Shelby’s side, because no huge wings sprung from it’s back and carried it towards them. Instead, it simply fell back into the depths of the ocean, and Shelby did not see it again that day.

She had almost forgotten the two people she had rescued in all the excitement, so she nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice from below her said, “who are you?”

Shelby decided to avoid further pestering by not just giving her name, “Shelby Reenberg, Apprentice Dragon Rider of Dragon’s Edge.”

The girl gave a nod of greeting, looking about as elegant as one could while dangling below a dragon, clinging on to their brother, “my name’s Freya, and this is my younger brother, Loki.”

Shelby blinked. She had never heard of a Viking being named after a god or goddess. In fact, back on Berk it would have been frowned upon, and she knew no parents who would have dared to show such blatant disrespect. She decided not to say anything.

“We were travelling to our home island from a mission when we got caught in a storm,” even though this story was obviously fake, Freya spoke with conviction in her tone.

“What was that monster?” Shelby didn’t care that she was being lied to right this moment. She just wanted to know what she had just rescued these people from and whether or not it was likely it would try to get revenge on her and Starlight.

“I don’t know,” Freya said, and again, Shelby got the feeling that she wasn’t being told the whole truth.

Shelby leaned back on Starlight, tearing her gaze away from the two children clutched in the dragon’s claws in order to scan the horizon. _Come on, come on. The island has_ got _to be close to here. I’m sure we’re going in the right direction._

“Where are you taking us?” Loki suddenly squeaked.

_Why does he make it sound like I’m kidnapping them? I’m rescuing them, for Thor’s sake._

“Why? Would you rather me drop you back into the ocean?” she snuck a glance downwards to see the little boy’s face visibly pale.

Loki huddled closer to his sister, “no,” he whimpered.

Freya curled her lip at the Apprentice, “we need to get back to our island.”

_Nope. No. Not going there. I’m not going back to Dragon’s Edge to find the whole thing in ruins because I went off on a little detour to return two children to their homes._

“I’m sort of on a mission,” she pointed out.

“Well you can drop us off on the way,” Freya snapped, “you have a dragon. You could get there in five minutes and then carry on with whatever you’re doing right now.”

“Oh, yes,” Shelby said scornfully, “I’ll just drop you off on an island which is probably an hour’s flight away, then continue on the very _not_ urgent mission which definitely does not involve saving an _entire island.”_

“It’s not an hour’s flight away,” Freya pointed out, “you’re going to that island with the big pack of wild dragons, aren’t you?”

Shelby honestly didn’t know at this point, but she didn’t want Freya to know that.

“Then judging by how long we were in the water, our island is about five minutes away on dragonback,” she said.

That was _definitely_ a lie, “I didn’t see any islands on the map that could be that distance away.”

“Well you wouldn’t,” Freya’s voice was dripping with a type of superiority that made Shelby want to drop her, and her brother, back in the sea to be eaten by that monster, “it’s not on any _Viking_ map. It’s just a little further in that direction,” she jerked her head to the side.

Shelby really didn’t want to help them, but she also didn’t want to listen to them chirp their complaints for the rest of the flight. Muttering about how Astrid was going to kill her if she ever got back, she tugged on Starlight’s saddle and they swooped towards where the girl had pointed.

“This the right direction?” she asked, glaring at the two people.

“Oh, yes,” Freya nodded slowly, a strange expression flitting across her face, “you’ll know when you get near it.”

 _That’s not a comforting thing to hear when you’re flying towards an- apparently invisible- island! Why couldn’t you just say, ‘you’ll know it when you see it’, like a normal person?_ Shelby felt like yelling. She tried not to think about all the ways a person would be able to tell they had gotten near an island. What if the island had a Death Song on it and Starlight got hypnotised? What if the island was surrounded by sea dragons? What if there were Dragon Hun-?

Shelby yelled as a net appeared in front of them, barely giving Starlight enough time to dart out of the way. She was so busy giving herself yet another mental pat on the back for not dying that she nearly failed to do the same for the second Viking contraption that came flying out of nowhere.

Starlight had barely recovered from the first shot when a gigantic spear zoomed into view, heading directly for them. Shelby had to tug herself sideways in the saddle to avoid being run through right then and there.

_Please don’t let me fall out of the sky on a dragon again. Please don’t let me fall out of the sky on a dragon again. Please-_

Well, the good news was that she wasn’t falling out of the sky on a dragon again. The bad news was that she _was_ falling out of the sky. Freya had climbed up next to her, taking advantage of Starlight’s distraction, and pulled her right off of her dragon’s back. She had just enough time to make a grab for the Dragon Eye- she was not going to break the promise she had made to Astrid if she could help it- and then she was plummeting towards the sea.

Shelby was suddenly glad that the Dragon Riders had given her such vigorous training, because otherwise she would have had absolutely no idea what to do. As it was, she had been drilled through this kind of situation, and she had an idea of how to land from a long freefall.

Unfortunately, doing that kind of stuff in a lesson was completely different to doing it in real life, and while Shelby would have managed to land on her feet and possibly roll like she had been taught, it was kind of a good thing she was falling over water because that would have shattered every single bone in her body.

The water was icy cold. It seemed to squeeze her chest and force all the air out, and she had come down with such force that she was metres away from the surface.

For all her faults, Shelby would not say that she was a bad swimmer. She enjoyed swimming, and while she was no master, she was able to keep herself afloat with a reasonable degree of success.

But when she had hit the water’s surface, it was like she had landed on hard rock. Her whole body felt like it had been beaten with a large stick, and the cold wasn’t helping. The cold was seeping into her bones and sapping whatever remaining energy she had left.

 _The surface is right there, about three metres away. You can do it, Shelby,_ she flailed her arms in an attempt to begin her swim to the surface.

_I’m doing it, it’s getting closer._

The last thing she remembered before her vision turned black was something slipping from her hand and sinking down into the depths of the ocean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look! I'm doing something that wasn't in the original episodes! This little sub-plot is something I've had planned since I started writing this story. Next chapter, we meet another new character. I am so excited to introduce him since I actually got the idea from a request from someone, and I have so many ideas for where I could take him. 
> 
> Thanks for reading. I'm going to try to not wait over a month before I post the next update, but maybe don't get your hopes up.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading


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